Outcome of the use of the Snoezelen Multisensory Room in an alexithymic patient: a case report.

Abstract

Alexithymia is a "transdiagnostic" dimensional construct consisting in difficulty in recognizing one's own emotional states and/or sharing them to others. In this case report we illustrate our experience of administration of Snoezelen Multisensory Room (SMR) treatment to a patient, one of our psychiatric inpatient's younger sister who had high levels of alexithymia. SMR treatment consists of visual, auditory, and olfactory controlled stimulations in a specific environment whose application in the psychiatric field is promising. It was administered to Greta twice a week for five weeks. Every session was carried out by a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Therapist and lasted forty-five minutes. The aim of this case report is to illustrate how the individualized, patient-oriented treatment in the SMR led to an improvement not only in the scores of the scales that assess the dimensions of alexithymia (TAS-20 and TSIA) but also in emotional openness that was crucial for the start of a psychological pathway.