SynthesisFrontiers in psychology2025
The effect of alexithymia on depression: evidence from meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- The role of alexithymia in the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms in Chinese men with methamphetamine use disorder.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Alexithymia in dyadic interactions: Associations with affective and sympathetic nervous system reactivity and empathic accuracy.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Associations Between Facets of Pathological Personality Traits and Alexithymia: The Roles of Detachment and Negative Affect.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2026Article
- Cognitive Distortions and Alexithymia: A Cross-Sectional Study of Their Association.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
- Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Study of Emotion Concept Activation in Young Adults with High Versus Low Alexithymia Traits.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Relationship among motives for alcohol and caffeine consumption, personality traits, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in nonproblem alcohol drinkers.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Latent profile analysis of alexithymia and its influencing factors in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Network analysis of empathy, anxiety and depression symptoms, relationship satisfaction, sensory processing sensitivity, and alexithymia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Mediating Role of Alexithymia in the Relationship between Maladaptive Object Relations Patterns and Depression.Iranian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: Depression is primarily characterized by persistent low mood and cognitive dysfunction, whereas whereas alexithymia refers to difficulties in cognitively processing emotions. Although alexithymia being recognized as a risk factor for depression, there is no clear scholarly consensus on its exact role. Methods: This investigation employs a meta-analytic random effects model to examine the relationship between alexithymia and depression. The analysis draws on data from 35 studies involving 23,085 individuals. Results: Several key findings are revealed: Firstly, the total alexithymia score shows a positive correlation with depression severity, possibly influenced by cultural differences between Eastern and Western populations. Secondly, Difficulty in Describing Feelings (DDF) and Difficulty in Identifying Feelings (DIF) are significantly associated with depression, while Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT) has a weaker link. Thirdly, the relationship varies across different demographic groups and depends on the depression assessment tool used. Discussion: These results emphasize the importance of examining not only the overall relationship between alexithymia and depression but also its specific dimensions. Additionally, the study explores the rational explanation of the interplay between alexithymia and depression within a Chinese cultural context and within the framework of the interpersonal theory of depression.
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