Validity issues in the assessment of alexithymia related to the developmental stages of emotional cognition and language

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>We examined developmental aspects of the emotional awareness of adolescents by evaluating their responses to a self-reported questionnaire based on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The items of the TAS-20 were modified to make them more understandable by adolescents, and nine new items related to a limited capacity for imagination were added. The Japanese Linguistic Ability Test and the multi-dimensional empathy scale for adolescents were administered to examine concurrent validity. Two hundred and two normative young adolescents and thirty-two adolescent patients with psychosomatic and/or behavioral problems participated in the study. Eighty junior high school students also participated in a separate examination of test-retest reliability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirteen items were extracted after exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and four core factors were identified in the resulting scale: Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty Describing Feelings (DDF), Externally-Oriented Thinking (EOT) and Constricted Imaginal Capacities (CIC). Interestingly, scores on the multi-dimensional empathy scale correlated positively with DIF and DDF, but negatively with EOT and CIC. Higher DDF scores were associated with higher Japanese linguistic abilities. DIF/DDF scores were higher for females than males, irrespective of linguistic ability. Test-retest reliability coefficients were significant. The patient group showed significantly higher DIF scores than the normative students.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present findings indicated that subjective difficulties in identifying and describing feelings are associated with empathetic and linguistic abilities. The developmental aspect to emotional awareness herein described suggests that self-reported questionnaires for alexithymia must be carefully constructed and examined, even for adults.</p

Emergency medical treatment of patients undergoing otolaryngology in the southeastern part of Okayama Prefecture

To clarify the scenario regarding the emergency medical treatment of patients undergoing otolaryngology in southeastern Okayama Prefecture in Japan, we evaluated the conditions in three hospitals that mainly provide emergency medical treatment to patients undergoing otorhinolaryngology at night or on holidays. The data (age, sex, type of disease, and address) of patients who visited Japanese Red Cross Okayama Hospital, Kawasaki Medical School General Medical Center, and Okayama Medical Center in 2018 were collected and compared. All three hospitals reported many cases of tonsillar abscess and nasal bleeding. In the study population, the number of patients aged ≤10 and 10-20 years were the lowest and highest, respectively. Patients residing in southern Okayama City and Tamano City tended to visit Japanese Red Cross Okayama Hospital or Kawasaki Medical School General Medical Center. Patients residing in northeastern Okayama Prefecture and northern Okayama City tended to visit Okayama Medical Center. A ceiling for the senior physicians’ capacity will be introduced in April 2020, and thus the number of otolaryngology-related treatments performed in Okayama Prefecture is expected to decrease. The otolaryngologyrelated emergency medical treatment in southeastern Okayama Prefecture may collapse. Emergency medical care systems must therefore be considered in the future