Psychosocial profiles of patients with burning mouth syndrome

Aims: Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is estimated to affect 1 to 5% of the ad ult population, with women experiencing symptoms more frequently than men. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychosocial profiles of BMS p atients to determine whether psychologic factors are related to pain report s. Based on previous literature, it was hypothesized that patients with EMS would be characterized by clinical elevations on standardized psychologic assessment instruments that included the Revised Symptom Checklist (SCL-90R ) and the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). Methods: Thirty-three EMS patients completed the McGill Pain Questionnaire, MPI, and SCL-90R during t heir initial clinical evaluation session. The SCL-90R and MPI data were the n summarized and presented in standardized format (T-scores) to enable mean ingful comparisons with larger population samples that included both a chro nic pain population and a normal nonclinical sample. Results: The T-score f or the overall pain severity on the MPI was 40.8 (SD 12.8). For the entire EMS sample, there was no evidence for significant clinical elevations on an y of the SCL-90R subscales, including depression, anxiety, and somatization . Moreover, patients reported significantly fewer disruptions in normal act ivities as a result of their oral burning pain than did a large sample of c hronic pain patients. Conclusion: These findings indicate that, as a group, this sample of BMS patients did not report significant psychologic distres s. There were, however, individual cases (7 of 33, or 21%) where psychometr ic data indicated a likelihood of psychologic distress, and further evaluat ion by a competent health professional would be warranted for those individ uals.