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