Alexithymia and emotional distress in patients with central serous chorioretinopathy.

The authors studied 31 consecutive patients newly diagnosed with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) as compared with 31 age- and gender-matched control subjects, assessing emotional distress (ED), nine psychopathological symptoms, critical life events, and alexithymia. Results showed no difference in the number of critical life events; however CSC patients showed elevated ED and elevated scores on seven psychopathological symptoms, including hostility. Controlling for ED, CSC patients showed elevated alexithymia sum scores.