Cyprus Mental Health Institute Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry and Psychology 1302-7840 2667-8225 3 1 Turkish 3 N N Y 2021 3 05 Full Length Paper Prevalence of Eating Disorders: Its Relationship with Alexithymia and Mental Complaints Turkish Y 30 36 Hatice Harmancı Turkish KTO Karatay University, Psychology Department, Karatay-Konya Turkey hatice.harmanci@karatay.edu.tr Y 0000-0003-4064-5391 Seher Akdeniz Turkish KTO Karatay University, Psychology Department, Karatay-Konya Turkey N 0000-0002-2282-9165 Zeynep Gültekin Ahçı Turkish KTO Karatay University, Psychology Department, Karatay-Konya Turkey N 0000-0002-2383-7167 10.35365/ctjpp.21.1.02 The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of eating disorders (ED) among university students who are considered to be at high risk in terms of ED, where productivity in life is more important, and also to examine alexithymia and other mental symptoms that ED may be associated with. This is a descriptive relational study. Four hundred twenty one university students with appropriate participation conditions were included in the research. Sociodemographic information form, Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Symptom Check List (SCL-90-R) scales were applied to the participants. The data were evaluated with the SPSS 25.0 statistics program. Participants with an average age of 19,82 ± 10,11; 58,2% were women, 97% were single, 71,7% were living with their families. Eating disorder prevalence was 20,9% and it was found that eating attitude disorder was more common among women. Among individuals with eating disorders, alexithymia total score and two alexithymia subscale scores, difficulty recognizing emotions and expressive thought, were significantly higher. At the same time, the anxiety, hostile attitude and psychoticism score indexes of the individuals with ED were found to be significantly higher. It is very important in terms of social functionality to recognize ED, whose incidence is gradually increasing, and to direct patients to effective treatment. Alexithymic complaints can cause ED or increase the severity of the existing disorder. Comorbidity of mental complaints with ED is common. A detailed evaluation of the factors that cause ED and affect symptom severity will increase treatment success. English Eating Disorders, Alexithymia, Mental Symptoms http://www.ktppdergisi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/4-Prevalence-of-Eating-Disorders-Its-Relationship-with-Alexithymia-and-Mental-Complaints.pdf http://www.ktppdergisi.com/yeme-bozukluklarinin-yayginligi-aleksitimi-ve-ruhsal-yakinmalarla-iliskisi_abstract_tr/ http://www.ktppdergisi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/4-Prevalence-of-Eating-Disorders-Its-Relationship-with-Alexithymia-and-Mental-Complaints.pdf Turkish References 35 36