New study explores how adults with HAE recognize and manage feelings
Higher depression scores linked to difficulty identifying emotions
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More than a third of adults with hereditary angioedema (HAE) were found to have substantial difficulty recognizing their own emotions in a new single-center study in France.
The data showed a moderate link between difficulty identifying and managing emotions and higher scores on a measure of depression symptoms. The findings suggest that support aimed at helping HAE patients strengthen emotion regulation skills could potentially help reduce depressive symptoms, researchers said.
The study, “Is hereditary angioedema associated with deficits in emotion regulation? A quantitative study in adult patients,” was published in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.Â
Living with HAE can take an emotional toll
HAE is a genetic disorder marked by sudden swelling attacks. These attacks can be painful, disabling, and in some cases even life-threatening if swelling blocks the airways. Beyond its physical effects, HAE can also affect emotional well-being. Managing unpredictable attacks can be highly stressful, and many people with HAE report that emotional stress may trigger swelling episodes.
In this study, researchers sought to better understand emotional regulation in adults with HAE. Emotional regulation refers to how people notice, understand, and manage their feelings. The researchers described it as “the ability to automatically or voluntarily influence our emotions, whether positive or negative,” and as the skills needed “to become aware of one’s emotions, identify them, and name them correctly.”
The researchers specifically examined how often adults with HAE show signs of alexithymia. Sometimes called emotional blindness, alexithymia describes difficulty identifying and describing one’s own emotions.
Researchers assess emotional awareness in adults with HAE
In the study, 39 adults with HAE completed a standardized questionnaire called the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. Based on this measure, 36.8% scored in the range for definite alexithymia, while 23.7% had possible alexithymia, and the remaining 39.5% showed no signs of emotional blindness.
In addition to the alexithymia scale, participants completed other questionnaires assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, emotional regulation skills, quality of life, and childhood parenting experiences. Statistical analyses showed that higher alexithymia scores were associated with more severe depressive symptoms, greater difficulty using emotion regulation strategies, and lower quality of life in the fatigue/mood domain. Perceptions of paternal overprotection were associated with difficulties in emotion regulation, which in turn were linked to higher alexithymia scores.
“The results of this study highlight that patients with higher alexithymia scores have greater depressive symptomatology, fewer emotion regulation skills, more difficulties in emotion regulation, lower quality of life in terms of fatigue, and more overprotective paternal parenting style perceptions,” the researchers concluded.
The finding that poor emotional awareness is linked with depression in HAE implies that “interventions focused on emotion regulation could effectively reduce anxiety and depression and potentially lower levels of alexithymia,” the scientists said, calling for efforts to design and test such interventions.
