Alexithymia and injury anxiety impede injury recovery

This study examined the relationship between alexithymia, sport injury anxiety, and injury recovery outcomes in athletes. A sample of 57 high-performance athletes (30 female) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Sport Injury Anxiety Scale, and Return to Sport after Serious Injury Questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis showed that difficulties in identifying feelings (a component of alexithymia), and sport injury anxiety significantly predicted negative recovery outcomes (return concerns), together explaining 27.7% of variance. However, neither alexithymia nor injury anxiety predicted positive recovery outcomes (renewed perspective), and both were unrelated to injury risk. The prevalence of alexithymia in this sample was approximately 20%, which is notably higher than general population estimates (~10%). This study provides preliminary evidence that emotion-related traits like alexithymia and contextual anxiety measures may play important roles in sport injury recovery processes, highlighting potential targets for psychological intervention during rehabilitation.