ObjectiveTo explore the influence factors of therapeutic compliance and emotional expression of first-degree relatives in acute schizophrenic patients with psychotic symptoms. MethodsThe Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was used to measure the severity of psychotic symptoms in sixty schizophrenic patients from June to September 2014 in West China Hospital and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) was used to survey the emotional expression in their family members. The homemade treatment adherence scale was used to survey the treatment adherence in patients for one week. ResultsThere was a poor therapeutic compliance in nineteen patients with acute schizophrenia (32%) and the other 41(68%) had good therapeutic compliance; the relatives of schizophrenic patients had high TAS scores (male: 67.61±10.03; female: 69.68±11.46) than the normal models did (P ＜ 0.05) . The differences between the patients with different therapeutic compliance in BPRS total score, reactivator, hostile and suspicion factor (P ＜ 0.05) . The therapeutic compliance was related to the severity of the psychotic symptoms (P ＜ 0.05) . Conclusions There is a bad emotional expression in the relatives of acute schizophrenic patients. The psychotic symptoms can influence the therapeutic compliance. The milder the psychotic symptoms, the better the therapeutic dependence.
ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical significance of alexithymia in combined assessment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). MethodsA total of 60 patients were enrolled during July 2013 and July 2014, who were divided into four groups according to modified British medical research council (mMRC), pulmonary function and acute exacerbation risk. Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20) was used to detect alexithymia. ResultsThirty-eight patients had no alexithymia including 20 males and 18 females with an average age of (72.7±8.7) years. Twenty-two patients had alexithymia including 18 males and 4 females with an average age of (76.8±7.9) years. Incidence of alexithymia in the COPD patients was 36.7%.The differences in gender, mMRC, pulmonary function and combined assessment between the COPD patients without alexithymia and the COPD patients with alexithymia were significantly different (P < 0.05). The scores of TAS-20 and its subscale F1, F2, F3 in different groups of combined assessment showed significant difference (P < 0.05). Alexithymia evaluation showed positively correlations with mMRC, pulmonary function grades and combined assessment. ConclusionsThe prevalence of alexithymia in COPD patients is high and closely related to COPD disease severity. Attentions should be paid to alexithymia in combined assessment of COPD patients.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the status of alexithymia in the Chinese elderly.MethodsCNKI, VIP, CBM, WanFang Data, PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and The Cochrane Library databases were electronically searched to collect cross-sectional studies related to the epidemiological characteristics of alexithymia among the elderly in China from inception to February 2021. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies; meta-analysis was then performed using Stata 16.0 software.ResultsA total of 11 cross-sectional studies involving 3 592 elderly individuals were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the prevalence of alexithymia in the Chinese elderly was 36% (95%CI 30% to 42%), and the score of alexithymia was 58.59 (95%CI 54.60 to 62.57). Subgroup analyses indicated that the prevalence of alexithymia was 39% (95%CI 32% to 45%) in northern China, 33% (95%CI 30% to 37%) in northeast China, 36% (95%CI 31% to 41%) in eastern China, 51% (95%CI 44% to 58%) in central China, and 20% (95%CI 16% to 24%) in the southwest China. The prevalence rates of hospitalized, nursing home, and community elderly were 42% (95%CI 34% to 49%), 37% (95%CI 28% to 45%), and 29% (95%CI 20% to 38%), respectively. The scores of alexithymia were higher among the elderly males, 80 years or older, engaged in heavy physical work prior to retirement, suffering from severer chronic diseases, low education background, low monthly income, living alone, and low frequency of participation in group activities and visited by relatives.ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that the overall prevalence of alexithymia is high in the Chinese elderly, and varies with regions. The levels of alexithymia among gender, age, occupation prior to retirement, number of chronic diseases, educational level, monthly income, habitation manner, the frequency of participating in group activities, and being visited by relatives and friends are different.