Psychiatric Characteristics of the Patients with Myofascial Pain Syndrome

Lee, Jung Ho; Lee, Gi Chul; Choi, Young Min; Jeon, Seong Ill

Abstract

We investigated the possible association between depression, anxiety, severity of recent stress in patients with myofascial paul, with chronic myofacial pain syndrome. On the initial visit, 30 subjects completed the following psychometiic battery Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Global Assessment of Recent Stress. As compared with the neurosis control group and the healthy control group, the results were as follows: 1) The myofascial paul group showed higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis controls, in the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. 2) The myofascial pain group showed higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis controls, in the total score of Beck Depression Inventory. 3) The myofascial pain group showed higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis controls, in the score of Global Assessment of Recent Stress. 4) In the factor analysis of Beck Depression Inventory, the myofascial pain group showed significantly higher scores than the healthy controls but lower than the neurosis control in the somatic symptom subscale. However, there were no significant differences among the myofascial pain group and other control groups in the other subscales. These findings suggest that the myofacial pain group is more anxious and depressed and more preoccupied with their somatic symptoms due to their myofacial pain and more stressed in recent periods. The authors propose that the psychiatric management is helpful in intervening with the progression of myofacial pain.