The Usefulness of the Short Form-8 for Chronic Pain in the Orofacial Region: A Prospective Cohort Study

Aiji Sato-Boku; Tatsuya Tokura; Hiroyuki Kimura; Mikiko Ito; Shinichi Kishi; Takashi Tonoike; Norio Ozaki; Yumi Nakano; Hiroshi Hosijima; Naoko Tachi

doi:10.7759/cureus.45586

The Usefulness of the Short Form-8 for Chronic Pain in the Orofacial Region: A Prospective Cohort Study

Cureus. 2023 Sep 20;15(9):e45586. doi: 10.7759/cureus.45586. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, Aichi Gakuin University, Nagoya, JPN.
² Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, JPN.
³ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Aichi Gakuin University, Nagoya, JPN.
⁴ Department of Psychological and Physical Sciences, Aichi Gakuin University, Nagoya, JPN.
⁵ Institute for Glyco-core Research (iGcORE), Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, JPN.
⁶ Department of Psychology and Human Relations, Nanzan University, Nagoya, JPN.
⁷ Department of Dento-oral Anesthesiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Sendai, JPN.

Abstract

Background and purpose Given that chronic pain has become a major problem in recent years, affecting approximately 30% of the general population, this study used the Japanese version of the Short Form-8 (SF-8) to investigate (1) the quality of life (QOL) of patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) or persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) (compared with a Japanese control group) and (2) whether therapeutic intervention improves the QOL and reduces pain (comparison between 0 and 12 weeks) of patients with BMS or PIFP. Materials and methods A total of 63 patients diagnosed with either BMS (n=45) or PIFP (n=18) were included in this study. The diagnostic criteria for BMS and PIFP were established based on the third edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders. Results Our study results showed that while Physical Component Summary (PCS) in patients with BMS or PIFP improved with treatment, it did not improve to the national standard value (NSV) after 12 weeks of intervention. In contrast, the Mental Component Summary (MCS) improved to the same level as the NSV after 12 weeks of intervention. Conclusions We found that therapeutic intervention improves MCS and reduces pain; however, improving PCS requires time.

Keywords: burning mouth syndrome; chronic pain; persistent idiopathic facial pain; quality of life; short form-8.

Grants and funding

This research was supported in part by the Japanese agency for a governmental grant-in-aid for young scientists (No. 19K17108) from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science to Tatsuya Tokura and Medical Research and Development (AMED) under grant No. JP21dk0307103 to Norio Ozaki.