Severe Asthma may Cause Mental Health Issues

Researchers at University of Western Australia and Columbia University have found that children who are suffering from a severe or persistent form of asthma may be prone to developing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. In the report, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, the researchers said that they used data from the Raine Study in order to find whether children who suffer from asthma had a risk of developing mental problems through to the age of 17 years.

The researchers found that those who had asthma by the time they were 5 years old had the highest risk of developing depression or anxiety later on in their lives.

“We were interested in understanding the link between asthma in early childhood and mental health problems later on as little is known about the relationship. We looked at whether the link was present for mild as well as severe asthma, and whether the link depended on asthma symptoms being persistent throughout childhood as opposed to asthma that lessens as the child grows older”, UWA’s Monique Robinson said.



Source-Medindia