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. 2019 Jul;49(7):2935-2945.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04020-1.

Mood Disorders in High-Functioning Autism: The Importance of Alexithymia and Emotional Regulation

Kristen P Morie  1   2 , Scott Jackson  3   4   5 , Zu Wei Zhai  6 , Marc N Potenza  7   8   9   10   11 , Barbara Dritschel  12
Affiliations

Mood Disorders in High-Functioning Autism: The Importance of Alexithymia and Emotional Regulation

Kristen P Morie et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Jul.

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have co-morbid anxiety and depression. Alexithymia and emotion regulation difficulties are commonly seen in individuals with ASD and in mood disorders. We hypothesized that alexithymia and emotional regulation would mediate the relationship between autistic features and anxiety/depression symptom severity. We collected data about emotional regulation, alexithymia, autistic symptoms and depression/anxiety in a sample of 64 young adults with ASD. We constructed two serial multiple mediator models, using autistic features as the independent variable and anxiety/depression symptoms as outcome variables. The serial relationship between alexithymia and emotional regulation mediated associations between autistic features and depression and anxiety, separately. The findings suggest that targeting alexithymia may benefit therapies designed to alleviate mood disorders in ASD.

Keywords: ASD; Alexithymia; Autism; Emotional regulation; Mood disorders.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors report no conflict of interest with respect to the content of this manuscript.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Theoretical model of indirect relationships between autistic symptoms, alexithymia, emotion regulation and mood outcomes. Indirect effects of autistic symptom on mood through alexithymia (a–a1); through emotion regulation (c–c1); through alexithymia and emotion regulation (a–b–c1)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Serial multiple mediation results of the relationship between autism symptoms, alexithymia, emotion regulation, and depression. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Serial multiple mediation results of the relationship between autism symptoms, alexithymia, emotion regulation, and anxiety. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001
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