Temperament and character profiles of patients with burning mouth syndrome

Abstract Objective Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic disease in which patients feel a burning sensation and pain in the oral cavity. Although personality traits have been suggested to influence the development and course of BMS, they have not yet been examined in detail. We therefore investigated the personality traits of BMS patients. Methods Sample consisted of 65 BMS patients presenting to the Aichi-Gakuin Dental School Hospital between May 2005 and April 2009. They were also diagnosed as having pain disorder by a psychiatrist. The control group consisted of 116 healthy subjects. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was used to evaluate personality traits, while the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to evaluate the depression rate in both groups. Results In TCI, we found that, in comparison to the control group, the novelty seeking score was significantly lower (p = 0.009), the harm avoidance score was significantly higher (p  Conclusion The novelty seeking score was low in BMS patients in comparison to the control group. They also had high harm avoidance and low self-directedness tendencies, but these were attributed to the influence of depression.