INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORAL MANIFESTATIONS AND DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND STRESS IN COVID-19 PATIENTS

Objectives : this study aimed to investigate the relationship between oral manifestations and depression, anxiety, and stress among covid-19 patients. Methods: This cohort study investigated 125 Covid-19 patients hospitalized at Covid-19 wards at Kashan Shahid Beheshti Hospital., After hospitalization, the patients were subjected to an oral examination and filled out the DASS-21 questionnaire to measure Psychological disorders at the beginning of hospitalization, one month and two months after discharge. Then we calculated the occurrence of oral manifestations and their relationship with depression, anxiety and, stress in the patients. Results: On the day of admission, 98.4% of patients had at least one type of oral manifestation. Coated tongue (75.2%), scallop tongue (67.2%) and xerostomia (66.4%) were the most common oral manifestations, respectively. As the severity of depression, anxiety and stress increased, the incidence of oral manifestations also did. However, we found no statistically significant relationship between these two factors (P<0.05); Temporomandibular disorders, xerostomia, changes in smell and taste were significantly related to Psychological disorders in some follow-ups (P<0.05). Conclusion: The study showed no statistically significant relationship between the severity of depression, anxiety and, stress with oral manifestations at any time, but with the increase in the severity of Psychological disorders, the incidence of oral manifestations also increased. A separate examination of the manifestations showed a statistically significant relationship between depression, anxiety and stress with xerostomia, temporomandibular disorders, changes in smell and taste at some follow-up times.