Disturbances of Emotional Awareness and Expression in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Meta-Mood, Emotion Regulation, Mindfulness, and Interference of Emotional Expressiveness

Demonstrations of deficient emotional awareness (EA) in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) measured by alexithymia were extended to trait metamood, difficulties in emotion regulation, and trait mindfulness in 55 women with PTSD related to history of interpersonal/familial maltreatment. Perceived causes of interference of emotional expression were also identified that fully mediated the association between PTSD diagnostic status and alexithymic difficulty describing feelings, but only partially mediated the association between PTSD diagnosis and alexithymic difficulty identifying feelings. Such causes of interference of emotional expression correlated with history of childhood physical and emotional neglect. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.