Original scientific paper

Depression and Somatization in Patients with Temporomandibular Disorders

Robert Ćelić
Vjekoslav Jerolimov
Josip Pandurić
Vesna Haban

Abstract

Studies have indicated that patients with TMD demonstrate increased somatization, stress, anxiety, depression.A consistent relationship has been demonstrated among anxiety, general somatic complaints, and TMD-related pain. The aims of this study were to determine the differences in depression and somatization scores in patients in different RDC/TMD axis I diagnostic groups and to investigate the role of psychological factors (depression and somatization) in TMD. One hundred fifty-four patients (37 male and 117 female; mean age, 39.0 ± 14.5 years) with RDC/TMD-defined clinical TMD were selected. Patients were subsequently classified into 7 groups based on the presence of the various RDC/TMD axis I diagnostic groups. Differences in mean SCL-90 depression and somatization scores between the diagnostic groups were compared by one-way analysis of variance and Scheffé post hoc tests at a significance level of 0.05. The frequencies of the different diagnostic groups were as follows: group 1 (muscle disorders, MD), 35.7%; group 2 (disc displacement, DD), 18.2%; group 3 (arthralgia, arthritis, arthrosis, AAA), 7.8%; group 4 (MD+DD), 9.1%; group 5 (MD+AAA), 13.0%; group 6 (DD+AAA), 9.1%; group 7 (MD+DD+AAA), 7.1%. The majority of patients had one diagnosis (61.7%) while the remaining patients experienced two or more diagnoses (38.3%). About 19.5% of TMD clinical patients yielded severe depression scores, and 27.3% experienced severe levels of non-specific physical symptoms scores. Only 6 patients (21.4%) had high disability with moderate and severe limitations (psychosocially dysfunctional patients). Patients diagnosed with myofascial pain and arthralgia (group 5 and 7) had significantly higher levels of depression and somatization than patients diagnosed with only disc displacements (group 2). These data mandate that screening and treatment for depression and somatization should be an integral part of the evaluation and management of patients with TMD.

Keywords

temporomandibular joint disorders; depression; somatoform disorders

Hrčak ID:

11548

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/11548

Publication date:

1.3.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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