J Oral Med Pain.  2022 Sep;47(3):117-125. 10.14476/jomp.2022.47.3.117.

Comparison of the Biopsychosocial Features of Myofascial Pain to Local Myalgia in Patients with Temporomandibular Disorders

• Choi HH
• Kim ME
• Kim HK

• KMID: 2552187
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14476/jomp.2022.47.3.117

Abstract

Purpose
This study aimed to investigate whether and how the biopsychosocial features of myofascial pain (MFP) differ from those of local myalgia (LM) in temporomandibular disorder (TMD).
Methods
Patients with TMD were retrospectively evaluated using the Diagnostic Criteria for TMD. All patients completed a series of self-administered questionnaires on pain severity and pain interference (Brief Pain Inventory, BPI), pain disability (Graded Chronic Pain Scale, GCPS), psychological distress (Symptom Check List-90-Revised, SCL-90R), pain cognition (Pain Catastrophizing Scale, PCS), and subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI). Among all the TMD diagnoses, muscle pain was classified into the MFP group and LM group.
Results
This study included 917 patients with myalgia (MFP: 266, LM: 651). Significant differences were observed in the female ratio (78.9% for MFP, 60.9% for LM, p<0.001) and the mean pain duration (MFP: 25.3 months, LM: 15.8 months, p=0.001) between the two groups. Patients with MFP exhibited higher pain severity (p=0.003) and pain interference (p<0.001) of BPI than those with LM. Furthermore, the global scores of the PCS (p<0.001) and PSQI (p<0.001) were higher in the MFP group than in the LM group. The MFP group had higher global symptom index (p=0.017) and five subscales of the SCL-90R than the LM group. Compared with the LM group (33.4%), the greater proportion of high disability of GCPS was observed in the MFP group (44.9%) (p<0.001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that sex (p=0.002), pain duration (p=0.019), pain disability (p=0.010), and subjective sleep quality (p=0.008) significantly differed between the two groups.
Conclusions
The findings of this study indicated that MFP presents a higher biopsychosocial burden than LM in TMD.

Keyword

Biopsychosocial; Myalgia; Myofascial pain syndromes; Pain; Temporomandibular joint disorders