2010 Volume 44 Issue 1 Pages 57-63
Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic pain syndrome that mainly affects middleaged and elderly women with hormonal changes or psychological disorders. Saliva can be gathered more non-invasively than other body fluids. We measured the anxiety and depression levels of BMS patients and healthy individuals using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and compared changes of salivary cortisol and chromo-granin A (CgA) in both groups. The subjects were ten healthy persons and nine BMS patients. Immediately and 30 minutes after administering the tests, changes in salivary cortisol and CgA were recorded. All tests were repeated on the following day. The HADS and SDS levels in BMS patients were significantly greater than in healthy persons. Salivary cortisol was significantly elevated in the healthy group, but not in the BMS patients. None of the subjects showed significant change in salivary CgA. We concluded that BMS patients were more influenced by psychological stress than healthy persons, as reflected in their salivary cortisol levels.
