Psoriasis and alexithymia.

Alexithymia is a perceptive, affective, specific disturbance of the psychic functions characterized by the difficulty to verbalize emotions and sensations and by a pragmatic thought content. The presence of alexithymia has been evidenced many times as an essential element in the genesis and in the maintenance of the various psychosomatic pathologies. This has stimulated us to research the alexithymical component in subjects affected by psoriasis in order to take advantage, when it is found, of a more appropriate therapeutic response.