Clinical oral investigations
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Correlation of RDC/TMD axis I diagnoses and axis II pain-related disability. A multicenter study.
As part of an ongoing multicenter investigation involving four highly specialized tertiary clinics for temporomandibular disorders (TMD) treatment, retrospective analysis of Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) axis I and axis II data gathered on clinic and community cases were assessed with a twofold aim: (1) to search for a correlation between axis I diagnoses and axis II pain-related disability, and (2) to identify clinical (axis I) and psychosocial (axis II) predictors of high pain-related disability. Two samples of patients seeking treatment for TMD (clinic cases, N = 1,312) and a sample of general population subjects (community cases, N = 211) underwent a thorough assessment in accordance with the RDC/TMD version 1.0 [1] guidelines to receive both axis I and axis II diagnoses. Spearman's test was performed to assess the level of correlation between axis I diagnoses and Graded Chronic Pain Scale (GCPS) pain-related disability. ⋯ The final model predicted the level of pain-related impairment at a fair level (R(2) = 26.7%). The correlation between axis I diagnoses and pain-related impairment is not significant in the patients populations. Treatment-seeking behavior and other factors related with the pain experience are likely to be more important than the physical findings to determine the degree of psychosocial impairment.