Vol. 24 No. 1 (2021)
Articles

Alexithymia, Anxiety Sensitivity and Mentalization in Individuals Having Diabetes Type I and II

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  • Maya IGNATOVA,
  • Svetoslav SAVOV

Published 05/03/2022

Keywords

  • Diabetes,
  • alexithymia,
  • mentalization,
  • anxiety sensitivity,
  • affect regulation,
  • psychosomatization
    • ...More
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How to Cite

IGNATOVA, M., & SAVOV, S. (2022). Alexithymia, Anxiety Sensitivity and Mentalization in Individuals Having Diabetes Type I and II. Psychological Research (in the Balkans), 24(1). Retrieved from https://journalofpsychology.org/index.php/1/article/view/22

Copyright (c) 2021 Psychological Research (in the Balkans)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The deficits in emotional processing have emerged as researcher’s interest, due to the fact that they have a significant role on the regulation and the quality of the overall mental functioning of individu als. They could lead to negative consequences both for the clinical course and for the treatment’s out come of various psychosomatic diseases, including Diabetes. This chronic disease has a highly growing prevalence all over the world, leading to impaired quality of patients’ lives. The research and knowledge of the levels of alexithymia, anxiety sensitivity and mentalization in individuals with Diabetes would be advantageous by informing different individualized approaches in the clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of alexithymia, anxiety sensitivity and mentalization and their associa tions. We tested patients having Diabetes type I and II and healthy controls using self – report measures Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS - 20), Anxiety Sensitivity Index and Mentalized Affectivity Scale (MAS). The findings of the present study support the view that individuals with Diabetes showed higher levels of alexithymia and anxiety sensitivity and lower levels of mentalized affectivity. No connection was found between alexithymia and anxiety sensitivity; anxiety sensitivity and mentalized affectivity. These results were similar for both groups. The expectation of an association between higher levels of alexithymia and lower levels of mentalized affectivity was partially confirmed.

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