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Aims: To explore the relationships between sleep quality, perceived
pain, and psychologic distress among patients with temporomandibular
disorders (TMD). Methods: A total of 137 consecutive
patients who sought care at the University of Kentucky
Orofacial Pain Center for the management of TMD participated
in this study and completed a battery of standardized, self-report
questionnaires at their first clinic visit. The Pittsburgh Sleep
Quality Index (PSQI) and the Multidimensional Pain Inventory
(MPI) were used to measure patients’ sleep quality and multiple
dimensions of pain and suffering, respectively. The Revised
Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90R) was used to evaluate psychologic
symptoms. A median cutoff (PSQI total score: 10) divided
the patients into 2 groups, ie, 67 poor sleepers and 70 good sleepers.
Results: There were no statistically significant differences in
gender and age distributions between the 2 groups. Poor sleepers
reported significantly higher scores than good sleepers on each of
the 14 scales of the SCL-90R (P < .003) and on 7 of the 13 scales
of the MPI (P < .05). Stepwise multiple regression analyses
demonstrated that poorer sleep quality was predicted by higher
pain severity (P < .001), greater psychologic distress (P < .05), and
less perceived life control (P < .05). Conclusion: This study supports
the frequent comorbidity of reported sleep disturbance, perceived
pain severity, and psychologic distress in patients with
TMD.
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