Anxiety in recurrent aphthous stomatitis patients

The relationship of recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) to psychological factors has been reported. The purpose of this study was to determine anxiety in RAS patients. All new patients seen during May 1988-November 1988 at the Oral Diagnosis Clinic, Department of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University, completed a questionnaire regarding their history of RAS. For the measurement of anxiety, patients were given the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS). Of the 3,106 patients studied, 46.7% reported a positive history of RAS. In this population, females were significantly (P less than 0.001) more anxious than males. The mean SAS score obtained from patients with RAS was significantly (P less than 0.001) higher than that of patients without RAS in each sex. It is concluded that patients with RAS are more anxious than patients without RAS.