The impact of a four‐month day treatment programme on alexithymia in eating disorders

Abstract

Abstract High prevalence rates of alexithymia have been reported in eating‐disordered patients. The aim of this study was first to investigate whether a 4‐month day hospital treatment leads to a decrease in alexithymia in eating‐disordered patients and second to see whether alexithymia predicts short‐term outcome in this population. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) were given to 47 patients with anorexia nervosa ( n = 18), bulimia nervosa ( n = 25) and eating disorders not otherwise specified ( n = 4) respectively at the beginning and at the end of a 4‐month treatment programme. Comparison of pre‐ and post‐treatment scores showed significant declines in the EDI as well as in the TAS. However, baseline scores for alexithymia did not predict post‐treatment outcome. We conclude that even highly alexithymic patients benefit from psychological treatment which encourages understanding and expressions of emotion and also leads to significant reduction in eating disorder‐related symptoms. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.