Reductions in Alexithymia and Emotion Dysregulation After Training Emotional Self-Awareness Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Phase I Trial.

There was no control group, so the study cannot show that the training caused the improvements rather than time, attention from the research assistant, medication, or outside counseling. Only 17 participants were enrolled and 13 completed, with a 23.5% dropout rate, so the results are preliminary and may not generalise. The training included several components at once, such as psychoeducation, discussion, videos, exercises, an Emotional Compass, take-home work, and family discussion, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Participants could continue medications and ongoing therapies, and some counseling or medication changes occurred during the study, which may have influenced outcomes. Follow-up testing varied in timing, with a mean of 80.46 days and a range of 57 to 127 days after post-test. Most outcome measures were self-report, and people with alexithymia may have difficulty reporting their emotions accurately, although the LEAS was performance-based. The study was designed as a Phase I proof-of-concept and feasibility trial, not an effectiveness trial, so it estimates initial effects rather than confirming benefit.

Research support is listed as NIH extramural and non-U.S. government funding. The supplied text does not report a conflict-of-interest statement, author disclosures, or company funding.

Do not conclude that this training reliably improves emotion regulation after TBI. It had no control group, and after adjustment for multiple comparisons anger was not significant at post-test and anxiety was not significant at follow-up.