Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Acta Neurologica Belgica, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Objective: Alexithymia, defined by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings, is prevalent in multiple sclerosis (MS) and linked to structural brain changes. This study aimed to examine the associations between alexithymia severity, corpus callosum (CC) volume, lesion burden, somatosensory amplification, and clinical-demographic factors in MS patients. Methods: Twenty-five patients with MS participated in the study. Alexithymia was assessed via the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), while psychological distress and somatic sensitivity were measured using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) and the Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SSAS), respectively. Structural brain MRI measures, including total CC volume and lesion localization, were analyzed alongside clinical data. Multivariate linear regression models were employed to identify independent predictors of TAS-20 scores, controlling for age, sex, disease duration, number of attacks, depression, anxiety, and somatosensory amplification. Results: Alexithymic patients showed significantly higher TAS-20, depression, and anxiety scores than non-alexithymic counterparts. Multivariate analyses revealed that reduced CC volume was a significant negative predictor of alexithymia severity ($p = 0.036$), while periventricular lesion burden showed a significant positive association with TAS-20 scores ($p = 0.034$). Interestingly, SSAS total scores demonstrated an inverse relationship with alexithymia severity ($p = 0.044$), suggesting that heightened somatosensory awareness might serve a protective function. Other clinical variables, including age and disease duration, were not independently associated with alexithymia after adjusting for confounders. Conclusions: These findings highlight the critical role of corpus callosum integrity, periventricular lesion localization, and somatosensory amplification in MS-related alexithymia, supporting the use of multivariate approaches to understand emotional processing disturbances.