Can alexithymia develop as a complication after heart surgery?

Alexithymia is defined as the impairment of emotional processing ability with a difficulty in identifying, describing and verbalization of the internal emotional state. The most prominent features are the significant dysfunction in emotional awareness, personal relationships, and social integration. The patients with Alexithymia also have a difficulty in recognizing and distinguishing the feelings of others which further induce a failure in constituting an emotional response and empathy. Alexithymia is seen approximately 10% of the general population and is considered to be highly comorbid with a number of psychiatric disorders. In this manuscript, a case with a heart surgery induced Alexithymia was reported. Alexithymia which occur as a postoperative psychiatric complication has never mentioned before in the available literature. [Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg 2018; 19(1.000): 99-102]