Usefulness of the Short Form-8 (SF-8) for chronic pain in the orofacial region

Given that chronic pain has become a major problem in recent years, affecting approximately 30% of the general population, this study used the Short Form-8 (SF-8) Japanese version to investigate (1) the quality of life (QOL) of patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) or persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) (compared to a Japanese control group) and (2) whether the therapeutic intervention improves the QOL and reduced pain (comparison between 0 and 12 weeks) of patients with BMS or PIFP. A total of 63 patients diagnosed with either BMS (n = 45) or PIFP (n = 18) were included in this study. The diagnostic criteria for BMS and PIFP were established based on the 3rd edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders. Our study results showed that while Physical Component Summary (PCS) in patients with BMS or PIFP improved with treatment, it did not improve to the national standard value (NSV) after 12 weeks of intervention. In contrast, Mental Component Summary (MCS) improved to the same level as NSV after 12 weeks of intervention. Therefore, we found that therapeutic intervention improves MCS and reduces pain; however, improving PCS takes time. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial UMIN000050995 ### Funding Statement This research was supported in part by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) under grant No. JP21dk0307103 to NO. https://www.amed.go.jp/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This research was supported in part by a governmental Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (No. 19K17108) from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science to TT. https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-grantsinaid/ ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This study was approved by the ethical review committee of Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine (no. 234, 234-2, 2004-0234-2 and 2004-0234-3) and the ethical committee of the School of Dentistry, Aichi‐Gakuin University (no. 41). I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from Tatsuya Tokura (tatsuyatokura@gmail.com).