PMID- 14526133
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20040329
LR  - 20171101
IS  - 0033-3190 (Print)
IS  - 0033-3190 (Linking)
VI  - 72
IP  - 6
DP  - 2003 Nov-Dec
TI  - Alexithymia, depression and social support among Japanese workers.
PG  - 307-14
AB  - BACKGROUND: A number of studies have shown that social support has a direct 
      beneficial effect on well-being and also serves as a buffer to protect people 
      from health problems due to excessive stress. Although preliminary studies report 
      a positive relationship of alexithymia both with depression and reduced social 
      support, there is no study examining whether the beneficial effect of social 
      support on depression differs with the presence of alexithymia. METHODS: A total 
      of 120 workers aged 19-39 completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale 
      (TAS-20) to measure alexithymia, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to 
      evaluate depressive symptomatology, and the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) to 
      assess job strain based on Karasek's demand-control-support model. The 
      interrelationship among TAS-20, BDI-II and 3 subscales of JCQ (job demand, 
      control, and support) were examined. RESULTS: A significant association of 
      depression with low support and high alexithymia was observed. Alexithymia was 
      also associated with reduced support. Further, a statistically significant 
      interaction between alexithymia and support in terms of their effect on 
      depression was observed. Nonalexithymic individuals with low support showed a 
      significantly higher depression score than those who received high support, while 
      alexithymics did not differ in their depression score depending on the degree of 
      support. Consistent results were obtained from the logistic regression analysis 
      examining the odds ratio for depression by support by alexithymia; a 
      significantly increased odds ratio for depression associated with low social 
      support was observed only among nonalexithymics. CONCLUSIONS: Alexithymic 
      individuals might be unable to benefit from social support because of their 
      cognitive deficits of emotion.
CI  - Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel
FAU - Kojima, Masayo
AU  - Kojima M
AD  - Department of Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, Nagoya City University 
      Graduate School of Medical Science, Nagoya, Japan. masayok@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
FAU - Senda, Yoshihiro
AU  - Senda Y
FAU - Nagaya, Teruo
AU  - Nagaya T
FAU - Tokudome, Shinkan
AU  - Tokudome S
FAU - Furukawa, Toshiaki A
AU  - Furukawa TA
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Psychother Psychosom
JT  - Psychotherapy and psychosomatics
JID - 0024046
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Affective Symptoms/diagnosis/*psychology
MH  - Depressive Disorder/diagnosis/*psychology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Japan
MH  - *Job Satisfaction
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Occupational Diseases/diagnosis/*psychology
MH  - Personality Inventory/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Psychometrics/statistics & numerical data
MH  - *Social Support
MH  - Stress, Psychological/*complications
MH  - Workload/psychology
EDAT- 2003/10/04 05:00
MHDA- 2004/03/30 05:00
CRDT- 2003/10/04 05:00
PHST- 2003/10/04 05:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2004/03/30 05:00 [medline]
PHST- 2003/10/04 05:00 [entrez]
AID - 73027 [pii]
AID - 10.1159/000073027 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Psychother Psychosom. 2003 Nov-Dec;72(6):307-14. doi: 10.1159/000073027.