RESEARCH ARTICLE
Personality Traits and Subjective Health Complaints in Female TMD Patients and Healthy Controls
Christine Mohn1, 2, *, Olav Vassend1, Berit Schie Krogstad3, Stein Knardahl1, 4
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 3
First Page: 134
Last Page: 143
Publisher ID: TOPAINJ-3-134
DOI: 10.2174/1876386301003010134
Article History:
Received Date: 16/08/2010Revision Received Date: 31/08/2010
Acceptance Date: 01/09/2010
Electronic publication date: 11/11/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background: Personality traits and general health complaints may influence the course of and treatment of chronic pain. However, only few studies compare more than one or two personality characteristics in chronic pain patients and healthy controls. This study compares the comprehensive non-pathological personality structure of female patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and pain-free controls. Moreover, this study controls for the influence of Neuroticism, self-presentation bias, and acute pain sensitivity on the subjective report of general health complaints. Methods: Twenty-five TMD patients were compared to 25 matched controls on personality traits (NEO Personality Inventory- Revised; NEO-PI-R), self-presentation bias (Social Desirability Scale; SDS), psychological distress (Symptom Checklist 90-Revised; SCL-90-R), and general somatic complaints. Experimental pain sensitivity was assessed by electrocutaneous and pressure pain stimulation.Results: Compared to the controls, Extraversion and Openness were lower in the TMD group, and the TMD patients exhibited higher levels of psychological and musculoskeletal complaints also when Neuroticism, self-presentation bias, and acute pain sensitivity were held constant.Conclusions: Low levels of Extraversion and Openness may dispose TMD patients to isolation and negative thought patterns.The elevated levels of psychological distress and general musculoskeletal pain in the TMD group add to previous reports of TMD as a complex condition also involving structures and processes outside of the orofacial region.
