Psychosomatic aspects of patients on hemodialysis. 3. Clinical usefulness of alexithymia |
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Authors: | I Fukunishi |
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Institution: | Psychiatric Research Institute of Tokyo, Japan. |
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Abstract: | The clinical usefulness of alexithymia in dialysis patients was examined from psychosomatic aspects. Before hemodialysis (HD), primary alexithymia was present in 50-53% of HD patients with diabetes. After 2 years' HD therapy, an additional 32-36% of HD patients without diabetes developed secondary alexithymia. In contrast, the prevalence of alexithymia was low in patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), which requires a higher self-control ability than HD. Alexithymia may reflect dialysis patients' ability to take care of themselves and therefore serve as a useful index in (1) selecting the type of dialysis, either HD or CAPD, and (2) identifying patients on dialysis likely to develop somatic complications due to lack of adequate self-control. |
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