Elsevier

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume 8, Issue 1, January–March 1994, Pages 19-31
Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Psychopathology and psychiatric diagnosis in subjects with dental phobia

https://doi.org/10.1016/0887-6185(94)90020-5Get rights and content

Abstract

To determine the diagnostic and psychopathologic characteristics of subjects with dental phobia, 73 subjects with dental phobia were systematically assessed using structured clinical interviews and multiple rating scales already validated as measures of dental phobia. Forty percent of the sample had a current Axis I diagnosis other than simple phobia, mostly anxiety (20%) or mood (16%) disorder. This subgroup had more Axis II diagnoses, functional impairment, generalized phobic avoidance, and somatization tendencies, higher harm avoidance scores on the TPQ, and more dental fear. Subgroupings based on the presence of an Axis II diagnosis, a lifetime Axis I diagnosis, multiple phobias, and type of dental fear yielded far fewer differences on the above diagnostic and psychometric measures. It remains to be seen whether using both DSM-III-R diagnoses and already validated dental fear classification schemes will improve treatment planning and outcome for these patients.

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    This work was supported by grants 507-RR05346, 1-P30-DF09743, 1-R03-DE09804 from NDIR/NIH.

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