Effectiveness of Processing Emotion Regulation Strategies Training (PERST) in Alexithymia of Patient with Psoriasis

The role of psychological factors such as emotional experiences especially Alexithymia has been approved in the clinical course of skin diseases. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of processing emotion regulation strategies training (PERST) in alexithymia of patient with psoriasis.
In the frame of single subject design among patients with skin disorders of treatment centers in Tehran, 3 patients with Psoriasis were recruited through convenient sampling and based on structured clinical interview for axis I disorders in DSM-IV (SCID-I) and inclusion and exclusion criteria then received processing emotion regulation strategies training for 10 sessions (each session had 1 hour length). Patients were evaluated 6 times by Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) duringtreatment and 1.5 month follow up. Data were analyzed by using the indices for trend changes, slope and the visual inspection of the charts; the recovery percent index and effect size were used to determine the clinical significance.
The data analysis showed that processing emotion regulation strategies training is significantly effective in reducing alexithymia and its subscales in patient with psoriasis.
According to the role of emotional factors as predisposing, precipitating and continuation of skin disorders including psoriasis education of processing emotion regulation strategies training could reduce alexithymia and manage positive and negative emotions play an important role to support treatment with medical treatment.