AIM: The burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is an oral disorder that consists of a 
burning pain in the mouth without any visible clinical manifestations: its 
etiology is still unclear and the etiological factors have been classified as 
local, systemic and psychogenic. In this study, we reported the evaluation of 
the psychological profile of BMS and non-BMS subjects in order to identify any 
psychological disease affecting these patients and to evaluate a possible 
psychological factor in the ethiopathogenesis of BMS.
METHODS: Twenty-eight patients affected by BMS, evaluated at the Section of 
Dentistry of the University of Parma, and 24 matched control subjects were 
evaluated for their personality profile using the Minnesota Multiphasic 
Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), a questionnaire which analyses various aspects 
of personality through 10 scales: hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, 
psychopathic deviation, masculinity-femininity, paranoia, psychasthenia, 
schizophrenia, hypomania, social introversion. From this study, 7 BMS patients 
and 12 control subjects were excluded due to high scores reported in one or more 
of the 3 control scales. The t-test and the Mann-Whitney test were used to 
compare the 2 groups and the results were considered statistically significant 
with P<0.01.
RESULTS: The results show no significant differences in personality profiles 
between the BMS and the control subjects suggesting an etiology for BMS 
different from the psychogenic hypothesis.
CONCLUSIONS: Further researches and the evaluation of larger BMS subjects groups 
are necessary in order to validate the hypothesis of the neurological etiology 
of BMS.