Introduction: There is a lack of longitudinal studies assessing the significance of alexithymia on

the emergence of mental illnesses. We aimed to evaluate the potential effect of alexithymia on

postpartum anxiety and depression symptoms in a sample of parents to be.

Methods: In a pregnancy cohort, longitudinal data were available from three time points

(gestational weeks 1820, and 3 and 12 months postpartum) for 100 mothers and 65 fathers.

The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to assess alexithymia, the State-Trait

Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to evaluate anxiety symptoms and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression

Scale (EPDS) to assess depression. Linear regression analyses were used to estimate the effect of

alexithymia on the symptom scale score changes from baseline.

Results: Both in mothers and fathers, the TAS-20 total score was significantly correlated with the

STAI and EPDS scores at several time-points, with a higher TAS-20 score indicating more

symptoms. In the regression analyses, the association of alexithymia with later symptoms

became non-significant in mothers. However, in fathers, the TAS-20 score had a statistically

significant effect on the increase of the STAI score at 3 months postpartum (p¼0.006). For the

separate TAS-20 subscales, difficulty identifying feelings had a significant effect on the increase

of anxiety by 12 months postpartum (p¼0.023) and difficulty describing feelings on the

increase by 3 months postpartum (p50.001).

Discussion: Although the setting did not facilitate the assessment of actual diagnoses regarding

the anxiety and depression symptoms, alexithymia appears to have a significant effect on the

increase of postpartum anxiety symptoms in fathers-to-be.