Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20): A Study of Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

researches demonstrate emotion disturbances in schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders including deficits in emotional expression and recognition. Schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders is typically regarded as a neurocognitive disorder, which suggests that emotional disturbances reflect abnormalities in brain areas important for emotion processing. The aim of this research was to investigate factor structure of alexithymia in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The research sample consisted of 180 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders from inpatients and outpatients of Mostafa Khomeini and Hazrat Rasoul hospitals. Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used for collecting of data. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model confirmed that alexuthymia has three different components in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The results suggest that this instrument has acceptable construct validity in the diagnosis and clinical research for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.