Psychodiagnostic involvement in the burning mouth syndrome: case series

Objectives Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) refers to a chronic orofacial pain disorder usually unaccompanied by mucosal lesions or other clinical signs of organic disease; it’s characterized by both positive (burning pain, dysgeusia and dysesthesia) and negative (loss of taste or altered and paraesthesia) sensory symptoms involving lips and tongue. Aims: to make an effective and correct diagnosis and a specific pictures of the neurological state of BMS in patients that have the same symptoms just explained and show how there is a neuropathic component involved. Methods 7 self-report questionnaires were administrated to 6 patients: the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 that values hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviation, masculinity-femininity, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, hypomania, social introversion; the DSM IV-TR for the mental disorders; the Beck Depression Inventory for the severity of depression; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for anxiety; the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 for psychological features frequently related to anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa; the Eating Attitude Test for a standardized measure about eating disorders; the Body Attitudes Questionnaire that measures six attitudinal dimensions (attractiveness, disparagement, feeling fat, salience, lower body fatness and strength); and a new questionnaire based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders. Results All the patients replied honestly and clearly the test so we could get a personal and complete profile and make an identikit about the prototype of BMS syndrome’s patient. Conclusions We can get a stereotype of patient on which base the diagnosis of BMS not just by painful symptoms and clinical signs but also by psychological and neurological characteristics.