Alexithymia Awareness Network
Evidence-informed explainer

Assessment Instruments

Compare instruments without treating scores as diagnoses.

Use instruments to ask better questions, not to self-diagnose.

Important boundaries

  • Alexithymia is usually treated in the literature as a dimensional construct, not a stand-alone diagnosis.
  • Self-report scores depend on the person, setting, language, current state, and purpose of assessment.
  • Cutoffs used in research should not be treated as personal clinical conclusions.
  • A high score can be a reason to ask better questions, not proof of what someone has or needs.
  • Diagnosis, treatment, medication, trauma, severe symptoms, or safety questions belong with qualified clinicians.

For a broader assessment overview, see Diagnosis & Assessment.

Common instruments

TAS-20

The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) is one of the most widely used self-report alexithymia measures. Key AAN citations include the original TAS-20 item-selection and cross-validation paper, a later TAS-20 review, and a meta-analytic confirmatory-factor-analysis review (Bagby, Parker, and Taylor, 1994; Bagby, Parker, and Taylor, 2020; Schroeders, Kubera, and Gnambs, 2022).

AAN describes TAS-20 scores as screening or research measurements, not diagnoses. Detailed scoring, cutoffs, language versions, and clinical interpretation should come from qualified sources in an appropriate setting.

BVAQ

The Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) is a self-report measure associated with cognitive and affective dimensions in the BVAQ literature. The primary validation record used here is Vorst and Bermond (2001) (Vorst and Bermond, 2001).

As with other self-report instruments, BVAQ results should not be used alone to diagnose a person or decide treatment.

PAQ

The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) is a self-report measure that separately assesses difficulties identifying and describing feelings for negative and positive emotions, alongside externally oriented thinking. It is a measurement tool, not a diagnosis (Preece, Becerra, Robinson, Dandy, and Allan, 2018).

TSIA

The Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) is an interview-based alexithymia measure. AAN does not present it as a public self-diagnosis tool or provide administration guidance (Bagby, Taylor, Parker, and Dickens, 2006).

OAS

The Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS) is an observer-report measure completed by someone who knows the person being assessed (Haviland, Warren, and Riggs, 2000).

LEAS and adjacent emotion-awareness measures

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) and other emotion-awareness measures are adjacent to alexithymia but should not be collapsed into alexithymia tests (Lane, Quinlan, Schwartz, Walker, and Zeitlin, 1990).

Use online screens thoughtfully

A self-screen is most useful when it helps you notice patterns or prepare for a conversation:

  • Which items were hard to answer?
  • Did the result match lived experience, or miss something important?
  • Were mood, stress, illness, trauma, burnout, medication, language, culture, autism, ADHD, or dissociation affecting responses?
  • What concrete examples would be useful to bring to a clinician?

Do not trust a diagnosis, treatment plan, or certainty score based only on a questionnaire.