Purpose: To explore the relationship among oral lichen planus(OLP), depression and gonadal hormones in female patients with OLP.
Methods: Sixty-seven cases of female out-patients with OLP were divided into erosion group (n=25) and non-erosion group(n=42). Meanwhile, 30 female out-patients with other benign oral lesion and without oral mucosa diseases were used as control group. Self-rating anxiety scale(SAS), self-rating depression scale(SDS), Hmiton anxiety scale(HAMA), Hmiton depression scale(HAMD) and life event scale(LES) were evaluated in all participants who were tested simultaneously with FSH, LH, E2, T, PRL as well as CORT and were screened with DSM-IV criteria for major depression. The data were analyzed by Chi-square test, Student's t test and Spearman rank correlation using SPSS10.0 software package.
Results: Ten cases (40% )met the DSM-IV diagnosis of depression in the erosion group, and 6(14.3% , 1(3.3%) in the non-erosion group and control group, respectively. The scores of SAS, SDS, HAMA, HAMD and the level of CORT in both the erosion and non-erosion groups were higher than those in the control group,but there was no significant difference between the erosion group and the non-erosion group. The score of LES in the erosion group was higher than the non-erosion group and control group, and there was no significant difference between the non-erosion group and control group. The total and negative life event scores of LES were positively correlated with the scores of SAS,SDS,HAMA and HAMD. The level of E2 and T in the erosion group was lower than the non-erosion group and control group. There was a negative correlation between the scores of SDS, HAMD and the level of E2 and T in the erosion group.
Conclusions: Depression plays an important role in the development of OLP, and one mechanism may be gonadal hormone disturbance, with stress as the triggering factor. The estrin treatment is helpful to improve the treatment effect on OLP of erosion style, especially, for female patient with depression.