Study finds that inability to express emotions may cause delay in seeking attention

May 27 2013

In case of heart attack it is of the most importance
 to get immediate medical attention.

A study published in the current issue of P&P found that inability to express emotions (alexithymia) may cause delay in seeking attention. Thus, psychological variables such as alexithymia influencing the decision may be relevant. Unfortunately many of the findings with respect to psychosocial factors in delayed care seeking are still controversial.

Consecutive patients aged 18-85 years, admitted to a Cardiology Ward at Cagliari University Hospital. The study sample was divided based on 'time to treatment', defined as the interval between the onset of symptoms and the first diagnostic ECG: controls = early care-seeking patients (<2 h); cases = late care-seeking patients (>2 h). The final sample
included 83 patients, with 73.5% males. The mean time to treatment was 176.75 ±
239.65 min. In the analyses, 36 patients (43.4%) were allocated to the cases, 47 patients (56.6%) to the controls. The association between alexithymia and contact with primary care prior to hospitalization was statistically significant. The study shows that low emotional awareness, measured by alexithymia, and having had contact with primary care were associated with increased time to treatment.

Alexithymia is a deficit, inability or deficiency in emotional processing and in the skills to detect the signal of illness. Some interventions were found effective in reducing alexithymia in coronary heart disease. Our data suggest a preventive use of intervention of alexithymia in people at risk for myocardial infarction.