Alexithymy is a concept developed by the psychosomatic Paris school. It means the incapacity to express emotions by words and to differentiate them from the body feelings with a limitation of imaginary life and an operational way of thinking.

It is regarded as a characteristic operating mode of patients suffering of diseases with psychosomatic components.

We made a study in the university service of dermatology with the objective to measure the degree of alexithymy at patients presenting a chronic dermatosis and to establish correlations between this psychological state, the type and the extent of dermatosis and depression.

We used a questionnary studying socio-demographic elements of our patients, pathological antecedents, type of dermatological lesions and their extents.

alexthymy was measured by Toronto scale in version with 20 items (TAS-20). Depression was evaluated by Hamilton scale. The statistical analyzes were carried out with SPSS. The correlations between alexithymy, depression and the extent of the lesions were carried out by using Rearson coefficient.

Our sample is composed of 75 subjects. 60,5% were hospitalized. 52,6% are represented by men. The mean age was 40,34 years with extremes from 15 to 89 years.

Dermatoses are represented particularly by psoriasis, skin wool, pemphigus and urticaria. The lesions were extended in 40,8%.

The mean score of TAS-20 is 54,75, the mean scores of the three principal factors were also measured. The correlations between TAS-20, HAM-D and the extent of the lesions were significant.