Alexithymia, immunity and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia: replication.
Psychother Psychosom
; 66(4): 208-13, 1997.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-9259044
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
In a previous study [Psychother Psychosom 1994;61199-204] we investigated the relationship between alexithymia, carcinogenesis and immunity in a group of women who were unconscious sufferers from precancerous lesions of the cervix (CIN). The results of this study showed a high level of association between alexithymia and CIN and, an even more interesting fact, between alexithymia and reduced levels of immunity.METHODS:
The aim of the present study is to check the results of the previous one by testing a larger group (43 women affected by cervical dysplasia and 67 healthy women) and by the use of a self-administered test for detection of alexithymia, the well-validated Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).RESULTS:
The results confirm that women suffering from CIN have higher average TAS-20 ratings (55) than normal women (47.32) and that the level of alexithymia detected in the group of women suffering from dysplasia (42.5%) is higher than that of normal women (12.85%). Moreover, the present study confirms that alexithymic women have lower rates of a number of lymphocyte subsets than non-alexithymic women.CONCLUSIONS:
This study fully confirms the results of our previous work and those of a number of other studies (1) personality might be one of the factors jointly responsible for the outbreak of cancer; (2) the immune system appears to play an important part as a mediator between personality and cancer.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Carcinoma in Situ
/
Neoplasias do Colo do Útero
/
Subpopulações de Linfócitos
/
Sintomas Afetivos
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
1997
Tipo de documento:
Article