OCCLUSAL FEATURES IN DEPRESSIVE PATIENTS WITH CRANIOMANDIBULAR DISFUNCTION

According to the present study, the prolonged OT may be due not only to occlusal but also to some behavioral features; in depressive patients, the extended OT is probably a result of antidepressants' side effects. The importance of psychometric evaluation for anxiety and depression, along with the occlusal assessment through the T-Scan occlusal analysis system is also pointed out by other researchers. [...]Lakshmi and Dyasanoor claimed the association between psychological involvement and the prolonged occlusion and disclusion times in patients with craniomandibular disorders [10]. The Biostatistics 2 software was used to process the acquired data. Since a normal distribution of values was recorded for OT analysis, a t-test (Welch) evaluated the difference between the mean value of the OT recorded from the patients' group and the average values of this parameter. [...]investigations are needed to clarify which of these factors, occlusion or psychological disorder, is more involved in craniomandibular disfunction. 5.CONCLUSIONS (a) In this study, the significantly prolonged OT in depressive patients with CMD may be due not only to occlusal discrepancies but also to certain behavioral factors; (b) Antidepressants may have an important role, considering some of their side effects, such as lethargy, fatigue, motor control deficiency, articular and muscular pain; (c)Since the use of antidepressants is part of the pharmaceutical treatment of CMD, they can probably influence the mandibular arc of closure movement by the mentioned side effects.