Review
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World J Psychiatr. Dec 22, 2014; 4(4): 91-102
Published online Dec 22, 2014. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v4.i4.91
Development of alexithymic personality features
Max Karukivi, Simo Saarijärvi
Max Karukivi, Psychiatric Care Division, Satakunta Hospital District, FI-29200 Harjavalta, Finland
Max Karukivi, Simo Saarijärvi, Department of Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Turku, FI-20700 Turku, Finland
Simo Saarijärvi, Unit of Adolescent Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, FI-20700 Turku, Finland
Author contributions: Karukivi M and Saarijärvi S were responsible for the study design; Karukivi M was responsible for the literature searches; Karukivi M and Saarijärvi S were responsible for the preparation of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflict of interest to claim.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Max Karukivi, MD, PhD, Psychiatric Care Division, Satakunta Hospital District, Sairaalantie 14, FI-29200 Harjavalta, Finland. max.karukivi@utu.fi
Telephone: +358-2-6274760 Fax: +358-2-6274785
Received: August 22, 2014
Peer-review started: August 23, 2014
First decision: September 19, 2014
Revised: November 18, 2014
Accepted: December 3, 2014
Article in press: December 10, 2014
Published online: December 22, 2014
Processing time: 122 Days and 20.1 Hours
Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature regarding the development of alexithymic personality features. Modern brain imaging technologies provide interesting data on the associations of alexithymia with different aberrations in brain function related to emotion regulation; however, the development of these deviations is poorly understood. A notable amount of research covers the relation of alexithymia to different environmental factors. Many of these associations, for example, with low socio-economic status and general psychopathology in childhood, are well established. However, the retrospective and cross-sectional designs commonly used in these studies, as well as the use of self-report measures, hinder the ability to firmly establish causality. Certain individual developmental factors, such as lagging speech development and congenital cardiac malformations in childhood, have been associated with the development of alexithymia. Regarding the stability of alexithymia, a systematic review of the literature was conducted for this paper. In addition to being characterized as a personality feature in the general population, alexithymia also clearly has a state-like dimension that results in increases and decreases in alexithymic features in conjunction with mental disorder symptoms. An essential question is whether the alexithymic features in adulthood are, in fact, infantile features of a restricted ability to identify and describe emotions that simply persist in individuals through adolescence to adulthood. To firmly establish the roots of alexithymia development, longitudinal studies, particularly in younger populations, are needed. Furthermore, multifaceted study settings are encouraged.

Keywords: Alexithymia; Development; Emotion; Personality; Stability

Core tip: This review summarizes the current literature regarding the development of alexithymic personality features. The subject is covered from several perspectives: neurobiological, environmental, developmental, and the stability of the core alexithymic features. Regarding the stability of alexithymia, the paper includes a systematic review of the literature. On this basis, both essential issues regarding the development of alexithymia and directions for future studies are raised.