Psychological aspects of asthma.
Asthma can be affected by stress, anxiety, sadness, and suggestion, as well as by environmental irritants or allergens, exercise, and infection. It also is associated with an elevated prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders. Asthma and these psychological states and traits may mutually potentiate each other through direct psychophysiological mediation, nonadherence to medical regimen, exposure to asthma triggers, and inaccuracy of asthma symptom perception. Defensiveness is associated with inaccurate perception of airway resistance and stress-related bronchoconstriction. Asthma education programs that teach about the nature of the disease, medications, and trigger avoidance tend to reduce asthma morbidity. Other promising psychological interventions as adjuncts to medical treatment include training in symptom perception, stress management, hypnosis, yoga, and several biofeedback procedures.
Lehrer
Paul
P
Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA. lehrer@umdnj.edu
Feldman
Jonathan
J
Giardino
Nicholas
N
Song
Hye-Sue
HS
Schmaling
Karen
K
D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D015013:Yoga