Dr. Adams' Alabama Headache Blog

The depression and somatization (non-pain) subscales of the SCL-90 are being used increasingly for assessment of the stress factors in TMD patients. To determine if scores on these subscales were related to entering treatment and number of treatment visits, 92 charts were selected at random from patients who started treatment for TMD over one year ago. Patients were classified into 2 groups; 1)evaluation visit only (NT), not electing treatment (N-30, 32.6%) and 2) continuing treatment (CT), (N=62, 67.4%). Mean depression scores of NT and CT groups as well as the mean somatization non-pain score of the NT and CT groups were not significantly different. Initial pain, measured on a 10-pt visual analogue scale, for the CT group tended to be lower than pain reported by the NT group. Of the 62 patients who continued with treatment, the number of visits tje patients attended was correlated only with depression scores. This association remained significant after adding age, sex, and initial pain level in a multiple regression analysis. CT patients' depression scores were divided into two groups based on the normal limit if Axis II of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD: 1) High (>0.535, N=39) and 2) Low (< or = 0.535, N=23). The mean of visits for the group with high depression scores (7.0, SD=3.17) was significantly greater than the mean number of visits of paitents with low depression scores. Results indicate that patients with high depression scores make more visits than patients with lower depression levels.