Anxiety and depression accompanying bruxism

Gaye Yıldırım; Bilgin Ali Şentürk; Ayşegül Özer Çelik; İbrahim Öztura

doi:10.55697/tnd.2025.227

Gaye Yıldırım¹, Bilgin Ali Şentürk², Ayşegül Özer Çelik², İbrahim Öztura⁴

¹Department of Neurology, Private Practitioner, Ordu, Türkiye
²Dokuz Eylül University, Institute of Neural Sciences, İzmir, Türkiye
³Dokuz Eylül University, Institute of Neural Sciences, İzmir, Türkiye
⁴Department of Neurology, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Türkiye

Keywords: Anxiety, depression, sleep bruxism.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether bruxism was accompanied by anxiety and depression.

Patients and methods: A total of 41 bruxers (26 females, 15 males; mean age: 44.5±14.2 years; range, 20 to 72 years), diagnosed from dental and clinical history, and 37 healthy individuals (17 females, 20 males; mean age: 41.5±12.4 years; range, 16 to 73 years) were included in the study between May 2017 and May 2019. They were asked to answer the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory.

Results: While there was no difference between the bruxer and control group for the scores from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, depression scale scores were significantly higher in bruxers (p=0.033/p<0.05). When the anxiety-depression relationship was examined in the bruxer and control groups, a positive significant correlation was found with trait anxiety scores in the control group (p=0.001, r=0.541). In the bruxer group, a significant and moderate correlation was found between depression and trait anxiety (r=526, p=0.001).

Conclusion: We believe that our study about the role of psychogenic factors in the pathogenesis of bruxism, a condition with an unclear etiology, makes a meaningful contribution to the literature.

Cite this article as: Yıldırım G, Şentürk BA, Özer Çelik A, Öztura İ. Anxiety and depression accompanying bruxism. Turk J Neurol 2025;31(2):128-132. doi: 10.55697/tnd.2025.227.