Muscle tenderness in different types of facial pain and its relation to anxiety and depression: A cross-sectional study on 649 patients

To evaluate in patients with different types of facial pain the association between muscle tenderness and a set of characteristics, 649 consecutive outpatients with facial myogenous pain (MP), TMJ disorder, neuropathic pain (NP) and facial pain disorder (FPD) (DSM-IV) were enrolled. For each patient a psychological assessment on the Axis 1 of the DSM-IV and standardized palpation of pericranial and cervical muscles were carried out. A pericranial muscle tenderness score (PTS), a cervical muscle tenderness score (CTS) and a cumulative tenderness score (CUM, range 0–6) were calculated. Univariate analyses (one-way analysis of variance or χ2 test) indicated that both age- and sex-distribution, tenderness scores and prevalence of psychiatric disorders markedly differed between groups. The prevalence of depression was highest in FPD patients (44.9%). Both muscle tenderness scores (either PTS or CTS) and prevalence of anxiety were higher in patients with MP than in those with TMJ or NP. To assess associations between CUM score and patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics an ordered logit model was fit and interactions between psychiatric disorders and diagnostic groups were tested. The analysis showed that, regardless of the diagnostic group, anxiety and depression independently increase the likelihood of having one point higher muscle tenderness score (OR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.13–2.12 and OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.10–2.21, respectively). A careful screening for the presence of an underlying psychiatric disorder, either anxiety or depression, should be part of the clinical evaluation in patients suffering from facial pain.