Impact of alexithymia, attachment styles, and childhood traumas on the severity of body-focused repetitive behavior disorders

Abstract

It is known that childhood traumas is associated with attachment problems, alexithymia and lead to some psychiatric disease. This study was investigated the relationship of body focused repetitive behavior disorders (BFRBDs) to childhood trauma, attachment styles, and alexithymia, and the impact of these factors on the severity of the disorder. 105 patients with BFRBDs and 90 healthy controls matched for age and sex were comprised in the study. Participants were administered sociodemographic data form, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Toronto Alexythimia Scale (TAS-20), Experiences in Close Relationships-II (ECR-II) and Childhood Traumatic Experiences Questionnairre (CTQ-28). Presence of childhood trauma, depression and anxious attachment score were found to be risk factors for the occurrence of BFRBDs. Physical neglect was found to have an indirect effect on the disease severity through the high score of externally-oriented thinking. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that patients who tend to present themselves as normal and do not express their problems/conflicts have a high severity of disease. In addition, it may be important to plan therapeutic interventions in patients according to their comorbidities such as alexithymia, attachment and childhood trauma.