The study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, in which the Chronic Respiratory Diseases Group of the Sant Pau Research Institute and the Pneumology Service of the Hospital, the Jiménez Díaz Foundation and the Autonomous University of Madrid participate, has demonstrated how anxiety and depression pose an independent risk in the control of asthma. In the work in which 180 pulmonologists and allergists participated, it was proposed to find out the association of the diagnosis of asthma with symptoms of depression and anxiety and their degree of control.
These associations were made at the beginning of the diagnosis and six months, after a treatment only for asthma and carried out by a specialist. We included 3,182 asthmatic patients who were evaluated by specialists in pneumology or allergology, to measure their level of asthma control, level of anxiety and depression.
Subsequently, the specialist decided to treat the patients, who were re-evaluated three and six months after the first consultation. Thus, the work showed that in the first consultation 24 percent of the patients were diagnosed with anxiety, and 12 percent with depression, so the anxiety figures were higher than those of the general Spanish population (9 percent), although the depression figures were similar.
After six months, the researchers were able to observe that both anxiety and depression improved, while evidencing an improvement in lung function and asthma control.
