Psychopathologic Profiles of TMD Patients with Different Pain Locations

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine whether psychopathologic profile is related to the location of pain in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients with myofascial and/or temporomandibular joint pain. Materials and Methods: A total of 75 painful TMD patients (39 women and 36 men) participated in the study. Participants were divided into three groups (myogenous, arthrogenous, and mixed) using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) Axis I guidelines for assessment of TMD signs and symptoms. Three psychometric instruments were used to assess the psychopathologic profile of the TMD subgroups. Patients' state and trait anxiety were assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S, STAI-T), depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and psychosocial functioning was evaluated using the Global Disability Scale (Glo.Di.S). The three TMD groups were compared with Kruskal-Wallis test followed by pairwise Mann-Whitney tests relative to the psychometric scores. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 15.0 software. Results: No significant differences were detected among the different TMD groups in the three psychometric scales; STAI-T, CES-D, Glo.Di.S (P > .05). When the psychometric scale of state anxiety (STAI-S) was considered, significant differences were revealed between the myogenous and the arthrogenous pain groups (P = .008) and also between the mixed and the arthrogenous groups (P .001). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the psychopathologic profile is not related to the location of pain in TMD patients. However, anxiety was found to be higher in TMD patients with myogenous pain alone or combined with arthrogenous pain compared to those with only arthrogenous pain.