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Backgrounds and aims: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), also known as Tic Douloureux, Fothergill Disease, Trifacial Neuralgia and “The Suicide Disease” is a disorder of the fifth cranial nerve characterized by attacks of intense, stabbing pain affecting one side of the face.The exact cause of trigeminal neuralgia is still not fully understood. Although there is a little evidence that patients with TN are more likely to commit suicide, the name “Suicide Disease” has been used because trigeminal neuralgia can cause agonizing pain and many (more than 100) years ago there was little that could be done to relieve this pain. Patients and methods: A total of 30 TN patients with 6 months or longer in duration of pain (15 female and 15 male) and 30 pain-free ageand gender-matched controls (15 female and 15 male) were examined. A standardized diagnostic protocol was applied to all of them, consisting of the following: 1) demographic data and estimation of overall pain on the visual analog scale (VAS) in the time of evaluation and through the month before ; 2) evaluation of presence of neuropatic pain measured by Leeds assessment of neuropathic signs and symptoms (LANNS) ; 3) evaluation of emotional status using the Beck Depression Inventory II with special interest of the question about suicidality. Results: The intensity of facial pain ranged from VAS 3 to VAS 10 beeing slightly higher in the group of female patients suffering from significant level of depression as well as in the group of male patients suffering from moderate depression. Significant level of depression were documented in 6, 67% of both female and male patients, moderate in 40, 0% of both female and male patients and low level of depression in 46, 67% female and 53, 33% of male patients. 6.67% of female patients and whole control group did not show depressive symptoms . There is no male patient with any kind of positive answer about suicidal tendency. Only one female patient with low level of depression informed us about suicidal ideas but lack of intent to commit a suicide. Two female patients did not answered to the question about suicide for reasons about which we can only speculate. Conclusions: Our preliminary results show strong corellation between chronic TN and depression. It seems that occurence of depression does not depend of the severity of pain but of the exsistence of chronic pain syndrome per se. Degree of suicidality measured among our TN sufferers did not show correlation strong enough to justify the old name of the disease as “The Suicide Disease“. |
