Chunk #17 — 1 Definitions and Conceptual Framework for Reward Deficit in Alcoholism — 1.1 Theoretical Framework: Motivation, Withdrawal, and Opponent Process
More compelling for the present thesis, during a 2-week inpatient withdrawal study, alexithymia (defined as a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions: from the Greek a for “lack.” lexis for “word,” and thymos for “emotion”; Sifneos 1973; Taylor and Bagby 2000), which results in poor emotional regulation and stress management abilities, remained high and stable during the 2-week period (de Timary et al. 2008). Alexithymia scores did not decline between the 0 and 2 day time-points but remained high at a score of 57 and declined only to 53 at the 3-week time-point (de Timary et al. 2008). The authors argued that alexithymia is a stable personality trait in alcoholics rather than a state-dependent phenomenon, providing support for the self-medication hypothesis outlined above.
