Since November 2005 our Institute has been developing a group therapy program for pathological gamblers, alternating a counselling/rehabilitation and a group psychotherapy session each week. For a better understanding of psychodynamic aspects of our patients we have started to assess them through Rorschach test according to Klopfer signing and with TAS-20 (Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Taylor et al., 1990). Preliminary results regarding ten patients have shown the following features: a discrepancy between high ambition and real intellectual skills; a psychic life condition dominated by immature resources and impulses; an inappropriate self-control which is performed through emotional distance and experiences of deep anguish. These features can be indicative of a difficulty in expression of emotions, according to alexithymia construct. Most of the patients were found to have significantly higher levels of alexithymia at Tas-20. This outcome is in accordance with previous works on the topic.

Our preliminary observations suggest to focus group therapy not only on communication contents, but also on the communication style of the patient. These results also suggest that could be important to help patient to recognize and discriminate emotional conditions to prevent relapses due to out of control or repressed emotions.

[1]. Parker J.D., Wood L.M., Bond B.J., Shaughnessy P. (2005) Alexithymia in young adulthood: a risk factor for pathological gambling. Psychother. Psychosom. 74(1): 51-5.