The presence of an anxiety or depressive disorder in asthmatic children aged 11–17 years is associated with an increase in asthma symptoms, reported Dr. Laura P. Richardson of the University of Washington, Seattle, and her colleagues.
“We found that youth with an anxiety or depressive disorder reported significantly more asthma symptom days than youth without anxiety or depressive disorders after controlling for asthma severity,” reported Dr. Richardson and her associates.
The researchers conducted a telephone survey of 767 children and adolescents aged 11–17 with a history of asthma who belonged to a health maintenance organization in Washington State. The study participants were considered to have asthma if they met certain criteria for the number of office or emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and medication prescriptions for asthma in the 12− to 18-month period preceding the study (Pediatrics 2006;118:1042–51).
Nine percent of the study participants had an anxiety disorder, 2.5% had a depressive disorder, and 4.8% had both.
The results showed that the youth with an anxiety or depressive disorder reported more asthma symptom days in a 2-week period, compared with youth without one of these disorders: 5.4 symptom days, compared with 3.5 symptom days. In addition, compared with youth without an anxiety or depressive disorder, youth with one of these disorders were more likely to be girls, to have a parent without a college education, to have a recent asthma diagnosis, and to be taking one medication to control asthma symptoms.