Evaluation of the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymia levels in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Aim: The aim of our study is to evaluate the relationship between the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymia levels in children and adolescents. Materials and Methods: The study included 105 ADHD diagnosed children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 who were previously undiagnosed or had not received medical treatment for the last 3 months and 109 healthy children and adolescents matched for age and gender who applied to Düzce University Faculty of Medicine Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Sociodemographic data form, Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) were administered to all children and adolescents. Conners parent rating scale revised/long form (CPRS-RL) and strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) were administered to all parents. Conners teacher rating scale revised/long form (CTRS-RL) was taken from the teachers in the patient group. Results: Significant differences were found between the ADHD group and the healthy control group in sociodemographic characteristics such as place of residence, family type, parental relationship and school success. All subscales and total scores of TAS, DERS and CPRS-RL were found to be significantly higher in the ADHD group compared to the healthy control group. The prosocial subscale of the SDQ was found to be significantly higher in the control group than in the ADHD group, and the other subscales and total difficulty score were significantly higher in the ADHD group than in the healthy control group. In our study, significant positive correlations were found between emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymia levels in the ADHD group. It was concluded that alexithymia and school success were significant factors at the level of emotion regulation difficulty in the ADHD group, and similarly, emotion regulation difficulty was a significant factor at the alexithymia level. Conclusion: Emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymic features that may be related to this are more common in children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. It is thought that evaluating ADHD not only in terms of defined core symptoms but also in terms of emotion regulation difficulties and alexithymia is important for more effective management of ADHD. Key words: ADHD, alexithymia, emotion regulation difficulty, child, adolescent, difficulty