ABS95: Mental disorders and asthma: have mental disorders an influence on asthma morbidity?

Abstract

Introduction:

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory pulmonary disease which is under-diagnosed, under-treated, and with a prevalence over 5%. It is associated with increased physical comorbidity, mortality, high rates of health service utilization, and occupational disability. There is also some evidence which suggests its relation to an increase in psychiatric symptomatology and mental disorders (MD) [1]. However, the validity, strength and specificity of these relations haven’t been established, even less in primary care settings. Aims and objectives: To describe the prevalence of MD in our asthmatic population and to know whether these patients show a worse evolution in their pulmonary pathology. Subjects and method: Transversal descriptive study developed in a Primary Care Centre of Barcelona. A sample of 338 asthmatic patients was studied. They were randomly selected between 675 registered in the centre informatic program. The period of study goes between 2000 and 2004. Clinical histories were revised using GINA 2004 [2] and DSM-IV criteria [3].

Results:

The average age of patients was 48,2 (SD 21,6). 67,8% were women. Focusing on asthma type, we observed: 41,1% of intermittent asthma, 16,3% of mild persistent asthma, 37,9% of moderate persistent asthma and 4,7% of severe persistent asthma (SPA). 31,1% of studied patients showed MD diagnosis. Among them: depressive disorder 53,3%, anxiety disorder 49,5%, somatoform disorder 4,8%, bipolar disorder 0,9% and others 13,3%. Patients with severe types of asthma showed more prevalenceof MD (p= 0,01). Asthmatic people with MD suffered more crisis (p= 0,005) and needed more recovery bronchodilator medication (p = 0,053).

Conclusions:

There is a high prevalence of MD in our asthmatic population, with predominance of depressive disorders. Patients diagnosed with SPA show higher prevalence of MD than the others. Asthmatic patients with diagnosis of MHD show more crisis and need more recovery medication.

Conflict of interest and funding