AUTHOR=Benz Carla Irene , Wolanski Celina , Piefke Martina , Campus Guglielmo , Piwowarczyk Andree , Wolf Thomas Gerhard 

TITLE=A double-blind randomized clinical trial on the suggestive effect of anxiety management questionnaires in dental emergencies

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1333594

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1333594

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Objective</title><p>Dental anxiety is widespread among both children and adults. To diagnose dental anxiety, standardized anxiety questionnaires are recommended. Based on the suggestive nature of the questionnaires, the study aimed to find out whether asking respondents about personal coping strategies before dental treatment influences their anxiety.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>This prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial included a total of 158 patients of a university dental clinic on emergency service. The intervention group (<italic>n</italic> = 82) received the Coping with Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) and the control group (<italic>n</italic> = 76) the Hierarchical Anxiety Questionnaire (HAF). State anxiety scores were assessed by using the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) before and after the completion of each questionnaire.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>Anxiety decreased in the intervention group (CAQ) (<italic>p &lt;</italic> 0.001) and increased in the control group (HAF) (<italic>p &lt;</italic> 0.001).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>Within the limitations of the current study, a diagnostic tool of a standardized questionnaire for the assessment to assess personal coping strategies decreased state anxiety in comparison to a questionnaire assessing anxiety.</p></sec><sec id="sec120"><title>Clinical trial registration</title><p><ext-link xlink:href="https://www.drks.de" ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://www.drks.de</ext-link>, German Trials Register (DRKS00032450).</p></sec>