A psychiatric appraisal of "glossodynia"

"Glossodynia" is a diagnostic rubric that includes patients enduring pain or a burning sensation in the tongue without any oral pathology or systemic disease. Psychiatric profiles of 50 women patients with "glossodynia" were compared with those of control subjects. The patients scored significantly lower on the Extraversion Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and higher on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale than the control subjects, whereas there was no significant difference in the mean General Health Questionnaire score. The psychopathology of "glossodynia" may be more markedly associated with personality trait characteristics than with neurotic or depressive symptoms.