A Longitudinal Investigation of Alexithymia as a Predictor of Empathy, Emotional Functioning, Resilience, and Life Satisfaction Two Years after Brain Injury

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Abstract:

Objective:

To examine the unique contribution of alexithymia at 1 year after traumatic brain injury (TBI) to the prospective prediction of emotional and social health outcomes at 2 years post-injury.

Design:

Multicenter, longitudinal cohort study.

Results:

Simple adjusted models demonstrated that after controlling for the specific outcome at Year 1, TAS-20 scores significantly predicted Year 2 scores for perspective taking, physical aggression, emotion dysregulation, resilience, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. All of these predictive findings except for physical aggression were maintained in the fully adjusted models that also controlled for age, sex, education level, number of prior TBIs, and motor and cognitive functioning.

Conclusions:

Compared to those with lower alexithymia scores, persons with TBI who had higher alexithymia scores at 1-year post-injury reported poorer emotional health at 2 years after TBI, even after controlling for Year 1 outcome scores, sociodemographics, and injury-related factors. These results support the need to assess for elevated alexithymia and to provide interventions targeting alexithymia early in the TBI recovery process.

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