Comunicación no verbal y alexitimia en pacientes con esquizofrenia
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Resumen
Introducción: la esquizofrenia se acompaña de déficits como alteraciones en la percepción social. La alexitimia, la incapacidad para expresar emociones o sentimientos, es un déficit comunicativo emocional común en la esquizofrenia.
Objetivo: evaluar la capacidad de percepción de claves sociales, actitudes interpersonales y comunicación de intenciones por canales expresivos no verbales en pacientes con esquizofrenia frente a un grupo control.
Método: se trata de un estudio transversal y comparativo (102 sujetos, de 18 a 45 años). El primer grupo estaba formado por 50 pacientes con esquizofrenia (48% hombres) según los criterios del DSM-5. El segundo grupo estaba formado por 52 sujetos (51.9% hombres) sin psicopatología ni antecedentes de trastornos mentales en familiares en primer grado, déficits neurológicos ni discapacidad intelectual. Se utilizó el MiniPONS para evaluar la percepción social y la escala TAS-20 para evaluar la alexitimia. Se utilizaron pruebas χ2 y t de Student, y un análisis de varianza con dos factores (grupo-sexo) para las puntuaciones de MiniPONS y TAS. Se buscaron correlaciones entre MiniPONS, alexitimia y PANSS.
Resultados: encontramos una correlación significativa entre educación y las puntuaciones MiniPONS y TAS en el grupo de esquizofrenia: r = .36, p < .01 y r = -.46, p < .01, pero no en el grupo control: r = .17, p = .41 y r = -.08, p = .71. El grupo con esquizofrenia obtuvo peores resultados en el MiniPONS: 39.90, DE = 5.99.
Discusión y conclusiones: nuestros resultados muestran un peor rendimiento global en comunicación no verbal e identificación de afectos en el grupo de pacientes. Estos fallos ejemplifican la dificultad para comprender sus propias emociones.
Detalles del artículo

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