[Assessment of mental health status and plasma catecholamine levels in patients with recurrent aphthous ulcer].

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between mental health and recurrent aphthous ulcer (RAU), and to explore the change of plasma catecholamine level in RAU patients.

METHODS

Thirty RAU patients treated in Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University from February 2016 to August 2016 were selected as the experimental group, and 30 healthy people with matched age and gender were selected as the control group. Patients in both groups were asked to fill in the psychological scales for researchers to analyze their mental state, including Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS). Whole blood samples were taken from the selected subjects around 9 am to 10 am. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze the plasma catecholamine level. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0 software package.

RESULTS

The results of SAS and SDS showed that the standard scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0.01), analysis of plasma catecholamine level showed that adrenaline level in the experimental group was significantly higher than the control group (P<0.01). Analysis of the plasma adrenaline level and standard scores of both psychological scales showed that they had significant correlation.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a close relationship between the development of RAU and the mental state of patients. Meanwhile, plasma adrenaline level significantly increases in patients with RAU.