The Role of Alexithymia and Coping Strategies in Eating Disorders: a Pilot Study

The majority of studies have found higher levels of alexithymia and a higher use of maladaptive coping strategies in individuals with eating disorders (ED). In this study, we consider the relationships between alexithymia and coping skills in different types of ED, in order to identify the specific role of these constructs in predicting dysfunctional eating symptoms. Thirty-four patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), 30 patients with bulimia nervosa (BN), 29 with binge eating disorder (BED) and 28 healthy control (HC) took part in the study. Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation (CISS) were used to assess the constructs of interest. Patients with ED showed higher levels of alexithymia in comparison with HC. Moreover, they presented a higher use of Emotion oriented coping strategy than HC. Regression analysis showed that alexithymia difficult to identify feeling predicted the eating disorder risk in patients with AN, whereas the same risk was predicted by the Emotion oriented coping strategy in BED group. For AN group, the model remain significant also when controlling for anxiety and depression. Alexithymia appears to be a predictor of eating symptoms specifically in an AN group, whereas a high use of emotion-oriented coping strategy appears to be a predictor of ED specifically in BED patients. The present findings may orient various kinds of intervention specifically targeted to different levels of emotion processing.