[Facial pains as symptoms of mental disorders]

One hundred seventeen patients, aged 16-75 years, with orofacial pains were studied. Borderline psychic disorders were detected in 106 cases, schizophrenia--in 11 cases. Facial pain was characterized by (1) polymorphism of sensations changing their site and duration, (2) absence of orofacial sensory deficits, (3) symptoms "mosaic"--a combination of separate signs specific for various "organic" facial pain, (4) absence of objective changes in oral cavity and facial region, (5) key role of psychoemotional factors in pain recurrence and intensification, (6) non-opioid analgesics and carbamazepine inefficacy. A systematics for facial pains of psychic genesis, comprising two groups of disorders, was elaborated. The first group includes facial pain and odontalgia in borderline psychic disorders--neurotic (somatoform, hypochondriac and hysteric) disorders, affective ones (mild depressive episodes and dystimia) and paranoic personality disorder. The second group comprises orofacial cenesthopathies in neurotic-like (schizotypal disorders) and paranoid types of schizophrenia.