Alexithymia, suicide ideation, affective temperaments and homocysteine levels in drug naïve patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an exploratory study in the everyday 'real world' clinical practice

Alexithymia, suicide ideation, affective
temperaments and homocysteine levels in drug
naïve patients with post-traumatic stress disorder:
an exploratory study in the everyday ‘real world’
clinical practice

Objective: The present exploratory study aimed to investigate relationships between alexithymia, suicide
ideation, affective temperaments and homocysteine levels among drug-naïve adult outpatients with Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in an everyday ‘real world’ clinical setting.
Method: Sixty-four adult outpatients with PTSD were evaluated using the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS),
the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS–20), the Scale of Suicide Ideation (SSI), the Temperament Evaluation
of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego-Autoquestionnaire. As well, homocysteine levels were
measured.
Results: Alexithymic subjects showed higher values on all scales but not homocysteine levels. Partial correlations
showed that almost all studied variables were correlated with each other, except homocysteine
levels. Regression analysis showed that higher disorder severity as measured by DTS and TAS-20
‘Difficulty in Identifying Feelings’ dimension was associated with higher SSI scores.
Conclusions: In conclusion, alexithymic PTSD outpatients may be characterised by higher disorder severity
and difficulty in identifying feelings that may be linked to increased suicide ideation, regardless of
affective temperaments or homocysteine levels. Homocysteine levels were not related to any studied variable.
However, study limitations are discussed and must be considered.