Chronic TMJ Pain and Cancerophobia Concerns

Objectives: The symptom of pain is a protecting alarm of a pathological process in the body. When the pain becomes chronic, this may have a consequence of an affected psychological status. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of chronic pain in the affected psychology of the patients. In more specific terms, it was our clinical interest to assess the degree of cancerophobia in long suffered patients and to evaluate any possible correlation by using the Kellner's questionnaire. Methods: In our protocol, 24 patients took part in the study under specific protocol guidelines. The English version of the Kellner's Scale was used in all subjects. The protocol was adherent to the Helsinki Declaration for human studies. The statistical package SPSSR 12 was used for descriptive statistics and correlations with other variables at the 0.05 level of significance. Results: The results showed that chronic pain patients affected more psychologically. The cancerophobia was significantly correlated with other illness phobias (p<0.05), but was not correlated to lost trust to clinician. Conclusions: In addition to well known psychological factors (stress, anxiety and depression) that may be caused by long term TMJ pain our study indicated further the factor phobia. The role of the psychosocial model of pain should be emphasized in the treatment approach.