SynthesisJournal of clinical psychology2025
Alexithymia in Schizophrenia and Psychosis Vulnerability: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of clinical psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Integrating Wearable Technology in Digital Therapy for People With Psychosis (SloMo): Mixed Methods Co-Design and Feasibility Study.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Mentalizing under stress and psychotic experiences: An experience sampling study.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2026Article
- Alexithymia and Social Cognition in the General Population: Further Evidence on the Relationship with Theory of Mind, Emotion Recognition, and Empathy.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Evaluation of alexithymia and clinical symptom severity in hospitalized Lebanese patients with schizophrenia.Discover mental health · 2026Article
- Relationship between socio-linguistic factors and symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychosis in the general population.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The relationship between trait mindfulness and psychotic-like experiences in a brief AI-generated music listening context: the roles of presence, perceived interactivity, and emotional arousal.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation in schizophrenia: current evidence, mechanisms, and future directions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Alexithymia as a Bridge Between Negative Affect and Schizotypy: A Cross-Sectional Network Model.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsDisturbances involving impairments in experience and expression of affect are frequently identified in schizophrenia samples. Alexithymia underlies cognitive impairments in identification and expression of affect, further implicated in affect dysregulation. The current review aimed to systematically review the literature and estimate the strength of associations between alexithymia and schizophrenia phenomenology.
methodA systematic review and meta-analysis identified 67 studies involving measures of alexithymia in psychosis. All studies were assessed for quality and publication bias. Overall, data from 47 studies were suitable for meta-analysis.
resultsAlexithymia and schizophrenia were consistently positively associated with a large effect size (k = 11). Compared to control groups, a schizophrenia diagnosis was positively associated with large magnitude effects for difficulties in identifying feelings (k = 18) and moderate effect sizes for difficulties in describing feelings (k = 17) and externally oriented thinking (k = 11). Data from community samples indicated moderate associations between subclinical negative symptoms and difficulties in identifying and describing feelings (k = 4) and a small association between positive symptoms and difficulties in identifying feelings (k = 5).
conclusionsAlexithymia and schizophrenia are strongly associated. However, methodological issues limit the establishment of directionality in these associations. The majority of studies use cross-sectional designs reliant on self-report assessments which may result in over-estimation of the reported effect sizes. Future research could conceptualize alexithymia as a stress-reactive multidimensional construct, and modeling dynamic relationships between alexithymia, psychological distress, and schizophrenia phenomenology should incorporate confounders such as gender, age, and neurocognition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.