Abstract

Objectives. To determine the prevalence and severity of alexithymia in patients with oral manifestation of lichen planus (LP).
 Methodology. The study involved 90 young and middle-aged patients (mean age 49.4 ± 8.9 years). The patients were divided into 3 groups: group 1 – 34 people with oral manifestations of LP, group 2 – 16 people with leukoplakia, group 3 – 40 people without clinical manifestations of diseases of the oral mucosa. A dental examination was conducted, including an assessment of the condition of the oral mucosa, and a standardized questionnaire survey using a Russian-language validated version of the 20-point Toronto Alexithymia Scale.
 Results. Alexithymia was detected in 55.88% with various forms of LP, which is statistically 2.2 times higher (p < 0.001) than in patients with leukoplakia of the oral mucosa (25%) and 5.6 times higher (p < 0.001) than in patients of group 3 who do not have diseases of the oral mucosa. The average score of alexithymia in patients with LP was 80.5 ± 2.7 points, which is statistically significantly higher than in the group of patients with leukoplakia (61.0 ± 4.2 points, p = 0.006) and in the control group (44.1 ± 2.9 points, p < 0.001). A higher incidence of alexithymia was revealed in patients with exudative hyperemic form (58.33%, P1 = 0.041) and erosive-ulcerative form of LP (57.14%, p = 0.049). Quantitative assessment of alexithymia showed that among patients with LP, the greatest severity of alexithymia was found in patients with exudative hyperemic form of LP – 85.9 = 1.5 points, (p < 0.001).
 Conclusion. The data obtained allow us to consider LP as a disease in the development of which there is a psychosomatic component. The presence of alexithymia and the degree of its severity can be considered as a predictive or predictive candidate factor.

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