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Identifying feelings more difficult for Sjögren’s syndrome patients
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Patients with Sjögren’s syndrome processed and regulated emotions normally although a relatively large number were alexithymic in a recent study.
Researchers used questionnaires to measure emotion processing styles and emotion regulation strategies among 300 patients with Sjögren’s syndrome and 100 healthy controls (mean age, 56.8 years; 93% women). Mental health, medical characteristics and severity of oral and ocular dryness also were analyzed.
Patients with Sjögren’s syndrome had more difficulty than controls identifying their feelings. Twenty-two percent of Sjögren’s syndrome patients fulfilled criteria for clinical alexithymia compared with 12% of controls (Chi2=4.78; P=.03). The groups did not significantly differ in emotion processing and regulation. All emotion processing styles in the Sjögren’s syndrome group were significantly correlated with mental well-being except externally oriented thinking. In emotion regulation strategies, suppression of emotion (r=–0.13; P=.03) correlated with worse well-being, similar to that of controls (r=–0.08).
“The psychological consequences of reduced tear production in Sjögren’s syndrome are unexplored,” the researchers said. “More research … is welcome, although our study does not suggest that processing and regulation of emotion is seriously disturbed.
“As in the general population, in patients with Sjögren’s syndrome, the more intense and deficient processing and regulation of emotions is associated with worse mental well-being,” the researchers concluded. “This study indicates that, except for selected patients, processing and regulation of emotions is not a key therapeutic issue for a majority of patients with Sjögren’s syndrome.”
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant disclosures.
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