Original scientific paper
Influence of Depression and Somatization on Acute and Chronic Orofacial Pain in Patients with Single or Multiple TMD Diagnoses
Robert Ćelić
Vedrana Braut
Nikola Petričević
Abstract
To examine whether psychological variables such as depression and non-specific physical symptoms (somatization)
influence pain entity among acute and chronic TMD patients with one or more TMD diagnoses (muscle disorders, MD;
disc displacements, DD; and arthralgia, arthritis, arthrosis, AAA). One hundred and fifty-four patients (37 male and
117 female; mean age, 39.0±14.5 years) with Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/
TMD) protocol were selected. Differences in mean depression and somatization scores between acute and chronic TMD
patients, as well as TMD patients with one or multiple TMD diagnoses were compared by using the parametric T-test for
independent samples. The majority of patients were acute TMD patients (81.8%), while the remaining 28 patients (18.2%)
were chronic TMD patients. 62% of patients had only one TMD diagnosis (MD or DD or AAA), 31% of patients had two
diagnoses (MD+DD, MD+AAA, DD+AAA) and, finally, 7% of patients had three diagnoses (MD+DD+AAA) according
to the RDC/TMD protocol. According to the SCL-90 psychometric evaluation, 19.5% of patients presented a severe depression
score (>1.105), 27.3% of participants presented a severe somatization score with pain items included (>1.000).
The results of the t-test for independent samples showed statistically significant differences between acute and chronic
TMD patients (p<0.001), as well as between patients who were assigned one diagnosis (p=0.019) and patients who had
two or more diagnoses (p<0.001); for mean levels of depression and somatization scores. Chronic TMD patients and patients
with multiple TMD diagnoses had higher rates of depression and somatization in this study. These results could
be used in a tailored strategy of TMD treatment.
Keywords
depression; somatization; acute pain; chronic pain; temporomandibular disorders
Hrčak ID:
72160
URI
Publication date:
30.9.2011.
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