Alexithymia and suicidality in panic disorder

• Published in: Comprehensive psychiatry 2001-11, Vol.42 (6), p.477-481
• Main Authors: Iancu, Iulian, Dannon, Pinhas N., Poreh, Amir, Lepkifker, Elie, Grunhaus, Leon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Affective Symptoms - epidemiology; Affective Symptoms - psychology; Analysis of Variance; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Panic disorder; Panic Disorder - psychology; Prevalence; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk; Sampling Studies; Suicide; Suicide, Attempted - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 0010-440X; 1532-8384
• DOI: 10.1053/comp.2001.27893

To evaluate the prevalence of suicidal behavior in patients with panic disorder (PD) and to study the role of alexithymia (AL), an affect component, as a predictor of suicidal behavior in PD, we compared 42 patients with PD with or without agoraphobia with 24 healthy controls with regards to depression, AL and suicide risk. Only 5% of the PD patients reported previous suicide attempts. A higher frequency of positive AL (score > 73) was found among the PD patients (39% v 4% among the controls). PD patients had a higher suicide risk and AL as compared to controls, but only the increased suicide risk reached statistical significance. AL subjects had higher suicide risk scores as compared to non-AL subjects. Significant correlations were found between the AL score and suicide risk, although the most significant correlation was, as expected, between the depression level and the suicide risk. A low rate of previous suicide attempts was found in the PD group, perhaps reflecting the low comorbidity in our sample. We suggest that AL may have a role in the causation of suicidal behavior in PD patients, although further studies should re-examine this issue with larger samples.