Childhood maltreatment and somatic symptoms

Adamowicz, Sirotiak & Thomas (2022) published “Childhood Maltreatment and Somatic Symptoms: Examining the role of specific types of childhood maltreatment and alexithymia” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 

Objective: Given the strong association between a history of childhood maltreatment and somatic symptoms, identification of therapeutically modifiable intervention targets is warranted. Alexithymia, or difficulty identifying and describing emotions, may be playing an important role. The present study examined contributions of alexithymia and childhood maltreatment as related to somatic symptoms. Method: Participants (N = 447) completed measures of childhood maltreatment, alexithymia, and somatic symptoms. Two three-step hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to examine the unique contribution of alexithymia after accounting for demographic characteristics and childhood maltreatment. The first regression utilized total scores, and the second explored five domains of childhood maltreatment, a trauma validity index, and three domains of alexithymia. Results: In the first linear regression, childhood maltreatment and alexithymia were significantly associated with higher somatic symptoms. In the second linear regression, childhood maltreatment and alexithymia both significantly added to the model; however, only emotional abuse was significantly associated with somatic symptoms. Conclusions: In line with previous research, childhood maltreatment and alexithymia are associated with somatic symptoms. Given specific domains of alexithymia were nonsignificant in this relationship, it appears no single aspect of alexithymia is of greater importance. Future research should examine these associations longitudinally, as improving alexithymia may help improve outcomes in individuals with childhood maltreatment history experiencing somatic symptoms. 

I like this study because it makes sense to me that, if you have difficulty identifying and describing emotions and are emotionally abused, you are more likely to exhibit somatic symptoms. I also find interesting the suggestion that, when dealing with a victim of child maltreatment, assessing for alexithymia may be helpful.