Salivary cortisol levels in patients with geographic tongue and its relationship with anxiety

Benign migratory glossitis, or geographic tongue, is usually an asymptomatic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology that affects the epithelium of the tongue. Among the etiologic factors proposed, emotional causes were suspected by several investigators. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anxiety and cortisol level in patients with geographic tongue compared with healthy controls.

In this case-control study, 21 patients with geographic tongue referred to several educational and medical centers in Hamedan city were se-lected. The patients had no systemic disease or history of cigarette smoking. A control group of 21 healthy individuals without geographic tongue, systemic diseases and cigarette smoking was also selected. The participants were asked to complete the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Also, unstimulated saliva samples were collected to measure the salivary cortisol level in both groups. The two groups were compared after adjusting for age and gender. The Mann-Whitney test was used to com-pare the salivary level of cortisol in the two groups with and without geographic tongue.

The anxiety score of the geographic tongue group was higher but not significantly (P=0.745). The concentration of salivary cortisol was significantly higher in the control group (P=0.01). No strong correlation was found between the salivary cortisol level and the Beck Anxiety Inventory score.

It seems that among various factors associated with geographic tongue, psychological conditions are less related.