Does alexithymia, independent of depressive and anxiety disorders, correlate with the severity of somatic manifestations among patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms?

Background: Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are highly prevalent, frequently co-occurring with psychiatric such as depression, alexithymia, and anxiety. Objective: To evaluate the relation between anxiety, alexithymia severity of somatic in patients MUPS. Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 196 suffering from The were recruited tertiary care internal medicine neuropsychiatry clinics during first quarter 2019. Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15), (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders Clinician Version (SCID-I-CV), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) employed to assess severity, major mental disorders, sample patients. Results: results indicate that GAD-7 PHQ-9 scores had positive correlation PHQ-15 ( p < 0.05) multivariate regression. In contrast, TAS-20 was not independently correlated PHQ-15. Adding equation regression model enhances predictive capacity 001). Conclusion: only anxiety depressive symptoms, but associated MUPS severity.