Investigation of psychological factors in patients with different symptoms of temporomandibular disorders

Abstract

Objective To compare the psychosocial factors especially anxiety in patients with different symptoms of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and provide evidence for psychotherapy strategies of patients with TMD. Methods Totally 206 patients visited TMD clinic of stomatological hospital of Tianjin Medical University and 201 asymptomatic volunteers were included in this study. Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to assess the psychological status. The patients were classified according to the chief complaints. The datas were analyzed by SPSS 17.0. Results There was a statistically significant difference (tsomatization = 3.79, Psomatization = 0.000; tdepression = 2.14, Pdepression = 0.033; tanxiety = 2.91, Panxiety = 0.004; thostility = 3.93, Phostility = 0.000; tpsychoticism = 2.48, Ppsychoticism = 0.013; ttotal = 2.80, Ptotal = 0.005) in the scores of SCL-90 between the patients and the volunteers, the patients got higher scores on the somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, psychoticism and the total score of SCL-90. Both scores of state anxiety inventory and trait anxiety inventory in female patients were significantly higher than the female volunteers (tS-AI = 3.52, PS-AI = 0.001; tT-AI = 4.26, PT-AI = 0.000) , but there was no difference between male patients and volunteers (tS-AI = 0.36, PS-AI = 0.718; tT-AI = 0.76, PT-AI = 0.453) . The scores of somatization and trait-anxiety were different among patients with different TMD symptoms (Fsomatization = 2.714, Psomatization = 0.046; FT-AI = 3.007, PT-AI = 0.031) . Patients with pain symptom had a higher somatization score than those with clicking symptom (P = 0.005) . The trait-anxiety score of patients who had clicking with or without pain were higher than those had pain with limited opening (P = 0.016) . Conclusions The level of psychological health of TMD patients were lower than the controls, focusing on somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility and psychoticism. The female TMD paients had the more obvious anxiety. Somatization in patients with pain were more obvious than patients with clicking. Key words: Temporomandibular disorders; Psychosocial factors; Symptom Checklist 90; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory