Psychosocial assessment of male patients with persistent idiopathic facial pain—a pilot study

Abstract

Studies have shown that up to 70% of patients with depressive and anxiety disorders may also experience chronic pain. This study aimed to examine the correlation between depression, anxiety symptoms, sleep quality and personality traits in male patients with persistent idiopathic facial pain. The research protocol was registered to international clinical trials registre. Adult patients who had visited the Hospital of University of Health Sciences clinics between 2019 and 2021 with a diagnosis of G50.1 (International Clasification of Disease Tenth revision (ICD-10)) “Atypical Facial Pain” were included in the study. The control group comprised patients with an obvious cause of chronic pain—unilateral post-fracture mandibular pain. The factors assessed in this study were pain, the tendency towards depression and anxiety, sleep quality and personality traits. Of the 20 patients eligible, we found no significant differences between the two groups in terms of personality traits, anxiety, depression and sleep quality. However, we found that pain score was significantly correlated with higher depression scores and that anxiety and depression scores were positively intercorrelated in the experimental group. Our findings indicate that male patients with persistent idiopathic facial pain may present with prominent, but not dominant, depression and anxiety symptoms, and a significant proportion may also have sleep disorders. Neuroticism appears to be associated with both mood disorders and poor sleep quality in male patients with persistent idiopathic facial pain.