Eighteen consecutive subjects (three men and fifteen women, mean age: 25.00 ± 8.12 years) with TAS-20 total score ≥58 were enrolled in the alexithymia group (TAS+ group). According to a case-control design, we enrolled a control group consisting of eighteen subjects matched for sex and age (three men and fifteen women, mean age: 23.89 ± 4.85) with low alexithymia (TAS-20 total score ≤45, TAS− group). The cut-off values of TAS-20 used for selection of study groups were those adopted by Romei and coworkers25. Clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of the final sample are listed in Table 1.
