ANTECEDENTS OF BURNING MOUTH SYNDROME (GLOSSODYNIA) - RECENT LIFE EVENTS VS PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Burning mouth syndrome-BMS (also known as glossodynia, glossalgia, glo ssopyrosis, or oral dysesthesia)primarily affects middle-aged women. M any possible etiologies have been proposed to account for the syndrome ; most are still unsubstantiated. One possible suggested etiology invo lves the presence of psychological components. In this study, 45 BMS p atients and 45 age-, sex-, ethnic origin-, socio-economic status-, and education-matched control subjects were evaluated for their psychopat hologic profile and existence of recent life events. All subjects were requested to complete the SCL-90 questionnaire and a Recent Life Chan ges questionnaire. The BMS patients scored significantly higher on all SCL-90 scales except one. A MANOVA test to evaluate the overall group effect was significant at the 0.0001 level. No differences between gr oups were found for recent life events. The data suggest that although BMS patients are subjected to elevated psychological stress, initiati on of BMS symptoms is not necessarily correlated with stressful life e vents.