Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is defined as a burning sensation of the oral 
mucosa, in the absence of specific oral lesions. The underlying etiology remains 
unclear. Peripheral alterations may be related to the density or reactive 
capacity of the oral mucosal membrane receptors - these being largely influenced 
by BMS-related risk factors such as stress, anxiety, the female gender, 
climacterium and advanced age. The present study compiles the cases of BMS 
induced by drugs reported in the literature, and attempts to draw a series of 
conclusions. A search was conducted in the PubMed database using the following 
key words: burning mouth syndrome, drug-induced, antihypertensive and 
chemically-induced. The search was carried out in April 2007. The literature 
yielded clinical cases in which oral burning sensation is described after the 
administration of drugs belonging to different therapeutic groups: 
antiretrovirals, antiseizure drugs, hormones and particularly antihypertensive 
medication. Curiously, among the different types of antihypertensive drugs, BMS 
was only associated with those compounds that act upon the angiotensin-renin 
system.