Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1216-1219
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Alexithymic features in relation to the dexamethasone suppression test in a Finnish population sample
T Lindholm, V Lehtinen, MT Hyyppa and P Puukka
Rehabilitation Research Center, Turku, Finland.
Hypothesizing that a positive DST result could reflect an aberrant stress
reaction in subjects with alexithymic features, the authors investigated
the relationship between alexithymic features and DST results in 266
subjects from a Finnish adult population sample. Alexithymic features were
assessed with the Beth Israel Questionnaire. The authors found a
statistically significant association between observed alexithymic features
and a positive DST result. This association could be seen after adjustment
separately for age, social rank, marital status, and the occurrence of
depression.
