psychometric characteristics of persian version of the toronto alexithymia scale-20 in clinical and non-clinical samples

background: alexithymia as a cluster of cognitive and affective deficits has been studied for its ability to predict a variety of psychological disorders. given its clinical importance, various self-report questionnaires have been developed to measure alexithymia. the aim of this study was to determine the psychometric characteristics of persian version of the toronto alexithymia scale-20 (ftas-20) using confirmatory factor analysis.   methods: 175 patients (102 women, 73 men) who met the dsm-iv-tr criteria for depressive, anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorders, and 173 normal adults (99 women, 74 men) completed the ftas-20.   results: findings supported the three-factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and predictive validity of ftas-20 in both clinical and non-clinical samples.   conclusion: the three ftas-20 subscales are useful to explore the distinct facets of the alexithymia construct