Multimethod alexithymia assessment in adolescents and young adults with a cannabis use disorder

Géraldine Dorard, Sylvie Berthoz, Mark G. Haviland, Olivier Phan, Maurice Corcos, Catherine Bungener
Comprehensive Psychiatry. 2008-11-01; 49(6): 585-592
DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.05.001

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1. Compr Psychiatry. 2008 Nov-Dec;49(6):585-92. doi:
10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.05.001. Epub 2008 Aug 23.

Multimethod alexithymia assessment in adolescents and young adults with a
cannabis use disorder.

Dorard G(1), Berthoz S, Haviland MG, Phan O, Corcos M, Bungener C.

Author information:
(1)Laboratory of Clinical Psychopathology and Neuropsychology, Paris Descartes
University, Paris, France.

The value of alexithymia assessments in medical and psychiatric research is well
documented, but such assessments in cannabis abusers are scarce. Moreover,
despite repeated calls for multimethod alexithymia evaluations, researchers
typically use 1 self-report only: the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Herein,
we evaluated (1) the psychometric properties of the Observer Alexithymia Scale
(OAS), (2) the correspondence between 3 alexithymia measures, (3) OAS raters’
affect and its relationship to OAS scores, and (4) cannabis abusers’ alexithymic
features. Eighty-seven cannabis abusers completed self-reports measuring
alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia
Questionnaire-B), depression (13-item Beck Depression Inventory), and anxiety
(State and Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form Y) and asked relatives to rate them
using the OAS. The raters also completed the self-report scales. The OAS met
acceptable reliability and validity standards, with the exception of relatively
low interrater reliability for one of its subscales. Rater affect appeared to
influence OAS scores, albeit slightly. Patients’ OAS scores were higher than
scores reported for people-in-general samples and lower than those for
outpatient clinical samples. Alexithymia rates were similar to those previously
reported in cannabis abusers. Our results demonstrated the adequacy and
appropriateness of the OAS in these (and related) clinical samples, which may
encourage multimethod alexithymia assessments in both research and clinical
practice.

DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.05.001
PMID: 18970907 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Auteurs Bordeaux Neurocampus