The comparision of the alexithymia in addicted and nonaddicted people in esfahan in 2013

Aim: The present study was conducted to compare alexithymia in addicted and nonaddicted people in Isfahan in 2013. Methods: It had a causal-comparative research method; therefore, 58 addicts who referred to addiction treatment centers of Isfahan were selected through available method. Afterselecting addicted samples, nonaddicted samples (58 individuals) were chosen from the people living in Isfahan via systematic sampling. Nonaddicted samples were matched to the addicted ones according to the variables of age, gender, educational level, and lodging. The applied instruments in the currentstudy included: The questionnaire of demographic variables and Torento’s (1994) 20-item scale of alexithymia. The achieved data were analyzed through MANOVA by SPSS software. Results: The results showed that in general alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings(DDF), and extrovert thinking), there is a significant difference between addicted and nonaddicted groups (P < 0.05). In extrovert thinking subscale, there is a significant difference between addicted and nonaddicted groups (P < 0.05); however, there is no significant difference between the subscales of difficulty identifying feelings and DDF in addicted and nonaddicted groups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The general conclusion implies that the alexithymia can be one of the effective factors in an individual’s tendency to drug abuse especially in men.

Keywords:

Addicted , alexithymia , extrovert thinking