Evaluación de los niveles de ansiedad y depresión en pacientes con presencia y ausencia de síntomas y signos de trastornos temporomandibulares

Abstract

A descriptive, non-experimental, quantitative, crosssectional and correlational study was conducted to evaluate anxiety and depression levels in patients with and without symptoms and signs of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). The sample was constituted by 116 subjects aged between 20 and 68 that attended the different clinical areas of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Los Andes. Clinical and psychological evaluation were performed to both groups of patients (cases and control) by using the diagnosis criteria of Dworkin y LeResche for the clinical exam and the scale of anxiety and depression of Ansilet de Esqueda and GE-Depre de Escalante for the psychological test. The analyses showed higher levels of anxiety and depression for the subjects in the cases group that for those in the control one. There were not statistically significant associations between the presence of signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorders and the different levels of anxiety observed (p>0,05). Nevertheless, that association was found for the presence of signs and symptoms of TMD with the different levels of depression at a marginal level (p=0,049). In the light of these results, it is possible to affirm that anxiety is not a predisponent factor for signs and symptoms of TMD. It is very difficult to infer that the presence of depression predispose the appearing of signs and symptoms of TMD because inside the control group it was noticed a higher frequency of levels of low depression compared to the cases; and the p value obtained was scarcely lower than the alpha level accepted.