Psychological factors in temporomandibular joint dysfunction: life events.

Psychological and emotional factors are clearly involved in the development of temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD). They also are involved in whether the patient chooses to present for treatment and how they react to the health care professional and treatment. However, many previous studies have been simplistic in that they look at a particular psychologic aspect in isolation. In this series of studies, a multivariate analysis of a broad range of psychologic and physical variables in a TMJD group (N = 105) and a matched control group (N = 90) was performed. The methodology of the study is described in detail in this paper. Patients with high life events were compared with those with low life events. A simple relationship of high life events to development of TMJD was not demonstrated. However, high life events did correlate directly with other psychological parameters and to the development of illness behaviour.