ALEXITHYMIA AND INTEROCEPTIVE CONFUSION IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC DISTRESS

Objective: Alexithymic traits are associated with the difficulty of perceiving 'non-affective interoceptive signals', and are related to a problematic management of stressful life events (SLEs). The main purpose of this study was to quantify the psychological response of the general population to COVID-19 pandemic stress and to evaluate potential correlations with the presence of 'alexithymic traits' and 'interoceptive confusion' (study protocol # 0077794/2022). Method: 175 subjects from general population were assessed with the Toronto- Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Event-Revised Impact Scale (IES-R), the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS), and the Interoceptive Confusion Questionnaire (ICQ). Results: a significant relationship emerged between alexithymic traits (assessed with the TAS-20), the ICQ ‘interoceptive confusion’, and the domain of ‘hyperarousal’ as assessed with IES-R. Logistic regression model showed that ICQ-Total Score and IES-R ‘hyper-arousal’ domain were significantly correlated with TAS-20 total score, with DR value (R2 corrected) explaining the 36.8% of the variability (standard error: 10.7). Conclusions: This study, albeit with the limitations of a cross-sectional experimental design with self-evaluation tools in a general population sample, showed a vulnerability to COVID-19 pandemic stress due to high levels of hyperarousal in subjects with alexithymic traits and interoceptive confusion.