Interoception moderates the association between alexithymia and anxiety symptoms

In 2019, 301 million people were living with an anxiety disorder. Recently, alexithymia and interoception has been considered to play a key role to understand anxiety symptoms. Both constructs are related to each other and together interfere with emotional regulation; however, its relationship has been much debated. A recent two-stage model proposed interoception as a moderator in the relation between alexithymia and anxiety symptoms. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to study how this model could explain the anxiety symptoms. Two hundred forty-one healthy participants completed the General Health Questionnaire, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness. Results verified that interoception moderates the association between alexithymia and anxiety symptoms, showing that, for alexithymia to be positively associated with the magnitude of these symptoms, at least a medium level of interoception is necessary.