AinsleyHarte
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: 14 Nov 2012
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 181
Location: Seattle-ish.
21 Jun 2013, 8:56 pm
21 Jun 2013, 9:37 pm
21 Jun 2013, 10:20 pm
22 Jun 2013, 5:04 am
23 Jun 2013, 3:20 pm
24 Jun 2013, 10:04 am
http://www.bpsmedicine.com/content/1/1/17
The SSAS is useful in briefly and objectively evaluating patients with mind/body distress. The total number of reported somatic symptoms has been considered to be a powerful predictor of functional impairment in physical, psychological, and social functioning [16], and the SSAS scores were shown to be closely associated with the total number of somatic symptoms in patients visiting a psychosomatic clinic[10].
Also:
Alexithymia is a personality construct derived from the clinical observation of patients with psychosomatic illness [17]. It is characterized by difficulty in distinguishing between emotions and bodily sensations, difficulty identifying and describing emotions, and a mechanistic, concrete, literal cognitive style. Evidence has suggested that alexithymia is associated with a tendency to develop functional somatic symptoms [18-20]. Our recent study reported that the SSAS was significantly correlated with a Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), in the sample of individuals with psychosomatic illness[10]. High rates of alexithymia have been reported in patients with essential hypertension, myocardial infarction, inflammatory bowel diseases, functional gastrointestinal disorders, and chronic pain [21], and the close relationship between alexithymia and somatosensory amplification has been demonstrated in chronic pain [22] and functional dyspepsia[23]. The statistical and clinical association between somatosensory amplification and alexithymic characteristics appears logical. The roles of these two psychological concepts in clinical conditions should be further studied to clarify symptom generation and perception in patients with psychosomatic illness.
Now I'm surprised I scored only 20, but then I think if I'd taken it five years ago, or even better, ten I would have scored much higher, as I was diagnosed with panic disorder and taking far too many ER trips over somatic complaints - then again, many of those complaints were prompted by symptoms that can easily be attributed to fibromyalgia, which I have more recently been diagnosed with.
Somatosensory amplification
Another well-reported characteristic of alexithymia is somatosensory amplification. Research has shown that patients with chronic pain have higher levels of alexithymia than control subjects, and alexithymia is associated with overreporting of physical symptoms. An association between alexithymia and increased pain intensity and sensitivity to experimentally induced pain has been demonstrated. The degree of alexithymia correlates with the score of somatosensory amplification. Therefore, alexithymics might perceive signals from the body in an aberrant manner such that low-intensity stimulation is perceived as high intensity. In particular, functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, characterized by chronic gastro-intestinal symptoms with no biochemical abnormalities, are associated with alexithymia. Therefore, in our second study, we investigated brain
responses to visceral stimulation induced by colonic distension between alexithymics and nonalexithymics. During colonic distension, greater activation was observed in the pregenual ACC, right insula, and midbrain in subjects with alexithymia. The TAS-20 score correlated positively with both activity in the right insula and orbital gyrus and adrenaline levels in the blood in response to stimulation. Subjects with high scores for difficulty identifying feelings perceived strong pain, urgency for defecation, stress, and anxiety.
This is horrifying. As so many autistics are alexithymic, and so many autistics have sharp and sensitive senses, the increased pain felt is very real. Autism can have so many co-morbid illnesses that involve pain, and ironically being autistic diminishes the chances of being believed by doctors - no wonder they call it over-reporting then. Increased bloodflow (in this case, compared to NTs) means increased activity, and if there is increased activity that means that it is not only "low intensity perceived as high intensity", it actually is higher intensity.
This is a thing that is so hard for NTs to understand, I've seen parents complain that their children SAY that brushing their hair hurts, without appearing to have any insight that it actually does hurt. I've seen articles about auditory processing disorder where the authors say people with APD "even claim that some sounds "hurt" their ears", with quotation marks...
Just because NTs have dampened senses does not mean that they have the only real senses.
The effect from not understanding that bodily perceptions are emotions can almost go away by getting used to it or learning what it is, and only make up a part of the somatosensory amplification anyway. I would have scored higher on somatosensory amplication before, and probably on alexithymia (though for different reasons).
Also, who decided on that test?!?
24 Jun 2013, 10:47 am
24 Jun 2013, 6:27 pm
24 Jun 2013, 7:15 pm
24 Jun 2013, 11:08 pm
25 Jun 2013, 5:36 am
25 Jun 2013, 11:38 am
25 Jun 2013, 9:25 pm
26 Jun 2013, 3:13 am
I think a lot of what Verdandi is getting at is pretty much correct. This collection of questionnaires was put together by me as part of my research. It's a double-headed thing. No one has really looked at sensory processing in alexithymia outside of interoception, and nobody has looked at interoception (directly) in autism. So I'm doing both. I'm also running participants in labs with a 'heartbeat perception task', which is the gold standard interoception test. Unfortunately, I can't directly recruit people with a diagnosed ASD due to the complicated and protracted NHS ethics procedures, and so am using AQ score instead. Good in principle, but not so great when everyone's AQ is about 15.
Anyway, I greatly appreciate all your help with this, and hope you all found this questionnaire interesting.
Wow a researcher! I liked the questionnaire. Hope you'll share the results around here as these are the people that really deserve to know.
My comment "who decided on that test?" was not directed at you. (unless that other study is your research too?
I did find out that it's apparently a standard test)
Are only those that scored high on the AQ of interest or will you look at how that score correlates with the other scores for possible NTs too?
Verdandi
Veteran
Joined: 7 Dec 2010
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 12,275
Location: University of California Sunnydale (fictional location - Real location Olympia, WA)
26 Jun 2013, 3:34 am
26 Jun 2013, 4:25 am
Autism Q 35 out of 50
Alexithymia 58 out of 100 ( borderline )
Somatosensory 35 out of 40 ... I was interested by the explanation of this on the Qu. saying that it is probably/possibly a measure of differences in "long-latency cognitive processing", because that would fit with how incredibly long it can and often does take me to work out what really happened in some/many situations, from days to months, even years in some cases, to realise what was going on *as well* as how I felt etc.
Glasgow Sensory Q 86 out of 168 ( which is apparently consistent with my AS Quotient of 35 )
Multidimensional Interoceptive Awareness 46 out of 160 ie. low. ... And it would almost certainly have been a much lower score 21 years ago, before I had my brief but life-changing out of body experience and discovered compassion as a result of realising that I existed *inside* the world, ( that the world was *not* inside my head ) and that all the "avatars" around me/other people were too and had real feelings like me, and went on the first of a series of increasingly long exclusion diets which had huge impact on my awareness of my body, esp my intestinal tract and how it had been chronically inflamed for decades without my noticing, and just how much impact it had on my mental state ... and some classes in Personal Development and yoga etc which taught me a bit about "being in my body", paying attention to how I felt physically, and breathing from belly etc ... ( which I probably couldn't have done before the exclusion diets because was so chronically inflamed/congested/tied up in knots down there and I think also had actually "turned down" my brain's awareness of the lower half of my body in response, till then ).
Absolutely.
Very interesting tests. Thanks.
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