Pressure pain thresholds fluctuate with, but do not usefully predict, the clinical course of painful temporomandibular disorder.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Central sensitization elicits pain hypersensitivity and is thought to be causally implicated in painful temporomandibular disorder (TMD). This causal inference is based on cross-sectional evidence that people with TMD have greater sensitivity than controls to noxious stimuli. We tested this inference in the Orofacial Pain: Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment (OPPERA) prospective cohort study of 3258 adults with no lifetime history of TMD when enrolled (visit 1). During 5 years of follow-up, 1 group labeled "persistent TMD cases" (n=72) developed first-onset TMD by visit 2 that persisted ? 6 months until visit 3. Another group labeled "transient TMD cases" (n=75) developed first-onset TMD at visit 2, which resolved by visit 3. Randomly sampled "controls" (n=126) remained TMD-free throughout all 3 visits. At each visit, pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) were measured by algometry at 10 cranial and bodily sites. In persistent TMD case patients, mean PPTs reduced 43 kPa (P<.0001) between visits 1 and 2 and thereafter did not change significantly. In transient TMD case patients, mean PPTs reduced 41 kPa (P<.001) between visits 1 and 2, and then increased 20 kPa (P<.001) by visit 3. These patterns were similar after excluding cranial sites symptomatic for TMD. Importantly, visit 1 PPTs had no clinically useful prognostic value in predicting first-onset TMD (odds ratio [OR]=1.07, P=.15). Among first-onset case patients, visit 2 PPTs were modest predictors of persistent TMD (OR=1.36, P=.002). In this longitudinal study, PPTs reduced when TMD developed then rebounded when TMD resolved. However, premorbid PPTs poorly predicted TMD incidence, countering the hypothesis that PPTs signify mechanisms causing first-onset TMD.
SUBMITTER: Slade GD
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4197095 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
ACCESS DATA