Halonen Harri, Salo Tuula, Hakko Helinä, Räsänen Pirkko
Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Aapistie 3, P.O. BOX 5281, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland, Tel. +358-294-480000, e-mail:
Oral Health Dent Manag. 2014 Jun;13(2):320-5.
Few studies have examined the association between dental fear, anxiety and depressive disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between dental anxiety, general clinical anxiety and depression among Finnish university students.
During autumn 2007, a Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) questionnaire was emailed to 1,551 new students at four Finnish universities willing to participate in this study. The following year, the same study group was asked to repeat the MDAS questionnaire, along with two additional tests: Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), a test to assess the level of general clinical anxiety, and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), a test measuring depression. Levels of clinical anxiety and depression were compared with the subgroups related to levels of dental anxiety. The anticipatory and treatment aspects of dental anxiety were derived from the MDAS questionnaire.
The mean age of the respondents was 25 years. Of the respondents, 99 (11.3%) were classified as dentally anxious patients. Among females, the higher dental anxiety was statistically significantly associated with higher levels of clinical anxiety (p<0.000) and depression (p<0.000), while in males, dental anxiety was only associated with clinical anxiety (p=0.016). For the factors of dental anxiety, only anticipatory dental anxiety was related with clinical anxiety (p=0.004) or depression (p=0.034) in males. In females, anticipatory and treatment dental anxiety were associated with clinical anxiety and depression (all with p<0.001).
In severe forms of dental fear, a dentist should recommend that patients seek help from mental health professionals, who are trained to recognize the psychiatric disorders that may be underlying in cases of dental fear.
很少有研究探讨牙科恐惧、焦虑与抑郁症之间的关联。本研究旨在评估芬兰大学生中牙科焦虑、一般临床焦虑与抑郁之间的关联。
2007年秋季，向芬兰四所愿意参与本研究的大学的1551名新生发送了一份改良牙科焦虑量表（MDAS）问卷。次年，要求同一研究组重复填写MDAS问卷，同时还要完成另外两项测试：贝克焦虑量表（BAI），用于评估一般临床焦虑水平；贝克抑郁量表（BDI），用于测量抑郁程度。将临床焦虑和抑郁水平与牙科焦虑水平相关的亚组进行比较。牙科焦虑的预期和治疗方面源自MDAS问卷。
受访者的平均年龄为25岁。在受访者中，99人（11.3%）被归类为牙科焦虑患者。在女性中，较高的牙科焦虑与较高的临床焦虑水平（p<0.000）和抑郁水平（p<0.000）在统计学上显著相关，而在男性中，牙科焦虑仅与临床焦虑相关（p=0.016）。对于牙科焦虑因素，在男性中，只有预期性牙科焦虑与临床焦虑（p=0.004）或抑郁（p=0.034）相关。在女性中，预期性和治疗性牙科焦虑与临床焦虑和抑郁相关（所有p值均<0.001）。
在严重的牙科恐惧形式中，牙医应建议患者寻求心理健康专业人员的帮助，这些专业人员经过培训，能够识别牙科恐惧病例中可能潜在的精神障碍。
