Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective To explore correlation of alexithymia and social support,coping style in first-degree relative of recession schizophrenia for providing solid scientific basis of alexithymia intervention. Methods 242 first-degree relative of recession schizophrenia were assigned into study group and randomly recruiting 176 health participants as control group, all participants were assessed by 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale(TAS-20), Perceived Social Support Scale(PSSS), simplified coping styles questionaire(SCSQ) . χ2-test，t-test, correlation analysis and regression analysis were employed for datum processing. Results In first-degree relative of recession schizophrenia who had no alexithymia was less than that of control group(P＜0.01), but moderate and severe alexithymia was more than control group(P＜0.01).Support from family, support out of family and positive coping negatively correlated to all three subscales of TAS-20 and negative coping had positive correlation with all three subscales of TAS-20(P＜0.01). Regression analysis suggested support from family, support out of family, positive coping, negative coping had significant predictive effects for total score of TAS-20(P＜0.05) and could account for 61.9% variance of alexithymia. Conclusions Alexithymia had higher prevalence rate in first-degree relative of recession schizophrenia, perceived Social Support, coping styles had significant predictive effects on alexithymia of first-degree relative of recession schizophrenia.

Recession schizophrenia; First-degree relative; Social support; Coping style; Alexithymia