Alexithymia, resilience, somatic sensations and their relationships with suicide ideation in drug naïve patients with first-episode major depression: An exploratory study in the "real world" everyday clinical practice

Alexithymia, resilience, somatic sensations and their
relationships with suicide ideation in drug naïve patients
with first-episode major depression: An exploratory study
in the “real world” everyday clinical practice

Aim: The present study is aimed at revaluating alexithymia, somatic sensations, resilience
and their relationships with suicide ideation in drug naïve adult outpatients suffering
from first episode major depression (MD).
Methods: Data of 103 adult outpatients (49 men, 56 women) with a diagnostic and
statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) diagnosis
of MD were analysed. Alexithymia was measured using the 20-item Toronto
Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and resilience with the 25 items Connor-Davidson Resilience
Scale (CD-RISC) whereas depression was evaluated using the 17-item Hamilton
Depression Rating Scale, somatic sensations with the Body Sensations Questionnaire
and suicide ideation with Scale of Suicide Ideation (SSI).

Results: Gender comparisons between all demographic and clinical variables showed
no significant differences in all variables. Subjects who were found positive for
alexithymia showed higher scores on all clinical variables controlling for age, gender
and duration of the current episode. In a linear regression model, lower scores on
CD-RISC and Difficulty in Identifying Feelings dimension of TAS-20 were significantly
predictive of higher scores on SSI.
Conclusions: Alexithymia and low resilience were significant predictors of increased
suicide ideation in a first MD episode. However, study limitations must be considered
and future research needs are being discussed.