Evaluatıon of Alexıtımıa Level in Cystıc Fıbrosıs Patıents

Introduction: Alexithymia, which is defined as the difficulty in recognizing, recognizing, distinguishing and expressing emotions, is a term that has emerged in the clinical field. Although it is controversial whether alexithymia is a personality trait or a symptom associated with mental problems, it is known that alexithymia is associated with the symptoms of physical and mental health problems. In this study, we planned to measure the alexithymia level of cystic fibrosis patients followed in our clinic. Material-Method: Patients aged 5-18 years who were followed up with the diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) in the Pediatric Chest Diseases Outpatient Clinic of the Meram Medical Faculty Hospital were included in the study. Patients younger than 5 years old and patients older than 18 years were excluded from the study. Patients filled out a questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics and Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Results: This study included 22 girls (46.8%) and 25 (53.2%) boys. According to the Toronto Alexithymia scale, the total score of the children with CF was 57.45±9.8, the difficulty of recognizing emotion sub-score of the scale was 16.61±6.19, the difficulty of expressing emotions was 13.73±3.45, and the extroverted thinking sub-score was 27.12±3.24. The alexithymia total score of 12 children (25.5%) was above 60 points. A total of 23 children (48.9%) had a total scale score above 50. Discussion: It is known that children with chronic diseases may have difficulties in recognizing and expressing their emotions. In this study, it was observed that children with CF had difficulties in recognizing and expressing emotions, and their expressive thoughts increased.