TMD treatment outcomes: a statistical assessment of the effects of psychological variables.
This study analyzes the degree to which pretreatment psychosocial factors (psychological dysfunctions and stress) effect outcome in 269 consecutive temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients at the completion of treatment. Employing the TMJ Scale, a validated measure of TMD symptoms, it is found that pretreatment TMD pain and overall symptom levels (excluding internal derangement symptoms) are weakly but nevertheless, significantly related to pretreatment psychological dysfunction and stress. However, the latter appeared totally unrelated to four treatment outcome measures. Additionally, the data supports the hypothesis that both initial and post-treatment intrascapular symptoms (TMJ Scale, Joint Dysfunction sub-scale) are unrelated to psychosocial factors. Data from this study call into question the value of categorizing the TMD patients by means of psychosocial "profiling" and "dual-axis" classification methods proposed by some researchers.
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D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D013706:Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome