Pain intensity and psychosocial characteristics of patients with burning mouth syndrome and trigeminal neuralgia

Abstract

This study compared pain intensity and psychosocial characteristics between patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) and those with trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Data from 282 patients with BMS and 83 patients with TN were analyzed. Patients reported duration of illness: duration ≤ 6 months was defined as acute illness and > 6 months as chronic illness. Present pain intensity and worst pain intensity during the past 6 months were reported using a 0-10 numeric rating scale (NRS). In addition, depression and somatization scores were evaluated on questionnaires. Patients with chronic BMS reported significantly higher pain intensity and had worse psychosocial characteristics than did those with acute BMS. Pain intensity was higher in TN patients than in BMS patients, although neither pain intensity nor psychosocial characteristics significantly differed between patients with acute and chronic illness.Logistic regression analysis of BMS and TN patients revealed that the odds ratio for worst pain was significantly lower for BMS patients than for TN patients and that the odds ratio for somatization score was 3.8 times higher in BMS patients. These findings suggest that BMS patients may require pain control targeting the central nervous system or psychosocial characteristics. (J Oral Sci 54, 321-327, 2012)

Functional and sensory evaluation of patients with idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia: Comparison with controls

“…Our sample was similar to other previous studies about gender and ages [3,4,10,[12][13][14][15]. Women are more affected and one hypothesis is their longer duration of life (ITN affected elderly more often) [16], and estrogen can modulate the nociceptive activity in the caudalis subnucleus [17].…”

“…In both conditions the degree of anxiety and depression that was found was of moderate intensity [39]. The same occurred in a study comparing ITN and burning mouth syndrome, which is also neuropathic [14].…”

Burning Mouth Syndrome due to Television Moans, an Enigma for Oral Physician: Treatment with Counseling

“…Various systemic causes associated with BMS include menopause, deficiency of vitamin B-complex, iron deficiency anemia and prolonged diabetes mellitus. 12,13 All these systemic diseases need to be ruled out with appropriate blood tests as in this reported case. Somatoform pain disorder has been suggested as a mechanism and psychological, psychosocial and even psychiatric disorders play a demonstrable role in BMS etiology and symptomatology.…”

Burning Mouth Syndrome –Latest update

“…BMS patients have higher anxiety and depression scores. Also, it is widely accepted that pain is a somatic aspect of depression and anxiety worsens somatization [99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] . Psychological conditions may play an important role in the modulation of pain perception.…”