Alexithymia in relation to frontal lobe functioning, emotional intelligence, parental alcoholism and alcohol consumption in a non-clinical sample

Background: Recent studies have indicated that 45-67% of alcoholics in treatment suffer from alexithymia, a multifaceted personality trait characterized by difficulties identifying and describing emotions, lack of imagination and an externally oriented cognitive style (see Thorberg et al., 2009). The high reported prevalence rates of alexithymia among alcoholics led to speculation that alexithymia is a personality dimension that strongly predisposes to problematic alcohol use. Methods: This notion was examined in 429 adults (52.9% female) aged 18-45 years (M = 27.73 years) who completed online surveys assessing alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale, or TAS-20), problematic alcohol use (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT), parental alcoholism (Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, or CAST), everyday frontal lobe related functioning (Frontal Systems Behavior Scale, or FrSBe), and Emotional Intelligence (Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, or TEIQ). Results: Alexithymia as defined by TAS-20 in this non-clinical sample was associated with problematic drinking, parental alcoholism, evidence of frontal lobe dysfunction, and low emotional intelligence. TAS-20 scores were significantly positively correlated with the index of frontal lobe dysfunction FrSBe (r = .50, p < .01) as well as the index of alcohol-related problems AUDIT (r = .13, p < .05) and the measure of parental alcoholism CAST (r = .17, p < .05). TAS-20 scores were significantly negatively correlated with the measure of emotional intelligence TEIQ (r = -.74, p < .01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that alexithymia is related to deficiencies in frontal lobe functioning and emotional processing that may reflect a heritable predisposition to alcohol problems.