Alexithymia and Autism

This entry explores the growing role of alexithymia in the field of autism studies. It sets out to define alexithymia and explores both its occurrence in the general population and the high rate of co-occurrence with autism. The entry examines the measurement of alexithymia before discussing the epidemiology and etiology. Both emotion recognition and emotion dysregulation are core aspects of alexithymia in autism, and these are discussed in the context of recent findings. Finally, the entry concludes by exploring intervention studies in alexithymia and how these may be relevant to autism.