Screening for psychiatric illness in patients with oral dysesthesia by means of the General Health Questionnaire--twenty-eight item version (GHQ-28) and the Irritability, Depression and Anxiety Scale (IDA).

Thirty-one consecutive subjects suffering from oral dysesthesia and without detectable organic disease were seen in a university outpatient dental clinic. They were assessed with a screening test for psychiatric illness, the General Health Questionnaire, 28-item version (GHQ-28). Twelve subjects also completed the Irritability, Depression and Anxiety Scale (IDA). At the 4/5 cutoff on the GHQ, 51.9% of the patients showed evidence of psychiatric illness. The IDA appeared to be more sensitive than the GHQ-28 in terms of detecting psychiatric illness, especially depression, and 75% of the 12 subjects who completed both scales were found to be depressed on the IDA. These results were compared to results obtained by another cross-sectional study of different types of pain clinics in which the same scales were used to screen for psychiatric illness. The subjects with oral dysesthesia as measured by the IDA appeared to have psychiatric illness more often than the other subjects with chronic pain, except those attending a psychiatric clinic. The GHQ-28 results on the other hand showed less psychiatric illness in the latter group. Our findings indicate that psychiatric illness, especially depression, may play an important role in this disorder and that the IDA may be more sensitive than the GHQ for detecting depression.