In our study, we compared the prevalence of alexithymia in diabetic patients with non-diabetic controls and investigated the relationship between Alexithymia and glycaemic control in diabetes.

In this cross-sectional study, TAS-20 scores of 100 diabetic patients and 50 non-diabetic controls were compared.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic data to describe the participants and aspects of their diabetes.

Prevalence of Alexithymia was not significantly higher than in the control (45% Vs 40%;p=0.56).

The diabetic study population was predominantly female (71%) and married (73%).

The average age in diabetic population: 56.21 years (ET=10.58); starting age: 46.8 years; average duration of diabetes: 9.41 years.

Alexithymic diabetic patients have more traumatic events (93.3% Vs 78.2%; p=0.035), especially such as the death of a parent (73.3% Vs 50.9%; p=0.022), than non-alexithymic counterparts. Factors such as comorbidities and presence of diabetic complications were not significantly associated with TAS-20.

Alexithymic diabetic patients were under a worse glycaemic control compared to their non-alexithymic counterparts (84.4% Vs 65.5%; p=0.031).

The high prevalence of alexithymia among diabetic individuals is an indicator of its importance in the approach to diabetic patients. The presence of alexithymia seems to be related to glycaemic control and might be of value in terms of risk stratification of the individual diabetic patient for developing diabetic complications.