EVALUATION OF DEPRESSION, ALEXITHYMIA AND SOMATIZATION IN PATIENTS WITH SUBJECTIVE TINNITUS
1Amasya Üniversitesi Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Psikiyatri Anabilim Dalı, Amasya, Türkiye2Özel Hürrem Sultan Hastanesi, KBB Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Türkiye
3Kanuni Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, KBB Anabilim Dalı, Trabzon, Türkiye Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate depression, alexithymia and somatization in patients with subjective tinnitus and to investigate the relation between these parameters.
Materials and Methods: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) - subscales (difficulty identifying feelings (DIF), difficulty describing feelings (DDF), externally oriented thinking (EOT) and Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SSAS) were administered to 63 patients with subjective tinnitus diagnosed by the Otorhinolaryngology clinic and 62 healthy volunteers without tinnitus.The relation of between depression, alexithymia and somatosensory amplification scores with tinnitus were analyzed. The groups were compared for scale scores.
Results: BDI, TAS-20 (total and all subscales) and SSAS scores were statistically significantly higher in the tinnitus group in comparision to the control group (p<0.05 for all). In the results of correlation analysis, Beck Depression Inventory scores were positive and significantly associated with TAS total, TAS-1 and TAS-2 scores (respectively p<0.001, p<0.001, p=0.017), however there was no significantly correlation between BDI and TAS-3 scores (p=0.076) in the tinnitus group. The frequency of alexithymia was found to be significantly higher in the group with tinnitus than in the group without tinnitus (p=0.010). There was no correlation between tinnitus duration and all scale scores (p>0.05 for all).
Conclusion: In this study it was shown that subjective tinnitus is associated with depressive symptoms, alexithymia and somatization.Patients with tinnitus may use somatization because they have difficulty in identifying and describing their emotions.The data we obtained in our study emphasizes the importance of psychological evaluation of patients with subjective tinnitus.
Keywords : Tinnitus, depression, alexithymia, somatization