Psychiatric Disorders and Symptoms in Children with Bronchial Asthma

Ob-jec-ti-ve: The aim of this study was to assess the anxiety and depression symptom severity and the frequency of psychiatric disorders in a group of children and adolescent with asthma and to compare the obtained results to those in healthy controls. Additionally, the association between levels of anxiety and depression symptoms and asthma-related factors was also investigated.Met-hods: Thirty-three children with asthma and 32 healthy control children and adolescents, aged 7-18, were recruited for the study. All participants were assessed by K-SADS-PL (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version) in terms of psychiatric disorders. The Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), Childhood Depression Inventory (CDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) were applied to each child.Re-sults: In 20 (60.6%) cases with asthma and 7 (21.9%) cases in the control group, at least one psychiatric disorder was detected. There was a significant difference between children with asthma and controls in terms of comorbid psychiatric disorders (p<0005). When we compared the rates of psychiatric diagnoses separately, it was found that there were no significant differences between the two groups, except for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). There were no differences between asthma patients with and without psychopathology in terms of age of onset and duration of asthma. When the cases were divided into three groups according to severity of asthma, no significant difference was observed between the three groups in terms of comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. The CASI, STAIC and CDI scores did not significantly differ between asthma and control subjects. There was no association between the scores of the three scales and asthma severity. Conc-lu-si-on: In this study, high rates of psychiatric disorders were detected in children diagnosed with asthma. Particularly, GAD diagnosis was higher in children with asthma. Existence of psychopathology was not found to be associated with age of onset, duration and severity of asthma. (Arc-hi-ves of Neu-ropsy-chi-atry 2012; 49: 218-223)