Psychological acceptance and alexithymia in spinal cord injury patients.

We examined psychological acceptance and alexithymia in a sample of 45 patients with spinal cord injury. Approximately 86% of patients regarded their prognosis for spinal cord injury as favorable. Seven years after the onset of injury, however, complete psychological acceptance of injury had not occurred in many patients. Patients who had achieved psychological acceptance tended to show alexithymia. These results suggest that patients may achieve psychological acceptance in the context of adapting to society by suppressing or denying their feelings and finally developing alexithymic features.