De Jongh Ad, van Eeden Astrid, van Houtem Caroline M H H, van Wijk Arjen J
Department of Social Dentistry and Behavioural Sciences ACTA, University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
School of Health Sciences, Salford University, Manchester, UK.
Eur J Oral Sci. 2017 Jun;125(3):202-207. doi: 10.1111/eos.12348. Epub 2017 Apr 29.
The importance of exposure to traumatic events for the development of dental anxiety has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that individuals who reported having been exposed to a traumatic event [that is, fulfilling Criterion A of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5), for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)] as the cause of their dental anxiety would report significantly higher levels of dental anxiety, typical trauma-related (PTSD) symptoms, and greater disturbance of memories involving these events than those who reported being exposed to non-traumatic events. Patients of a specialized dental fear clinic (n = 90) were divided into those who reported a traumatic event that initiated their dental trait anxiety and those who did not. The two groups did not differ in their severity of dental anxiety and number of PTSD symptoms, but the memories of those who had been exposed to traumatic events were significantly more vivid than the memories of those in the reference group. Length of time since the event took place did not play a role. Hence, traumatic events are remembered more vividly, but do not seem to initiate more severe forms of dental anxiety than other events.
创伤性事件暴露对牙科焦虑症发展的重要性尚未得到研究。本研究的目的是检验以下假设：那些报告因创伤性事件（即符合《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第5版（DSM-5）中创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的A标准）而导致牙科焦虑的个体，与那些报告暴露于非创伤性事件的个体相比，会报告更高水平的牙科焦虑、典型的创伤相关（PTSD）症状，以及涉及这些事件的记忆受到更大干扰。一家专业牙科恐惧诊所的患者（n = 90）被分为报告创伤性事件引发其牙科特质焦虑的患者和未报告此类事件的患者。两组在牙科焦虑严重程度和PTSD症状数量上没有差异，但暴露于创伤性事件的患者的记忆明显比参照组患者的记忆更生动。事件发生后的时间长度没有起到作用。因此，创伤性事件的记忆更生动，但似乎并不比其他事件引发更严重形式的牙科焦虑。
