[Psychological characteristics in patients with allergic rhinitis and its associated factors analysis.].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the psychological characteristics of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and its associated factors.


METHODS
Three hundred and seventy-seven patients with AR were evaluated by the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). The results were compared with a standard, obtained from healthy Chinese population, including factors of gender, age, educational level, medical history of AR, presence of complications, type of allergenic sensitizations and nasal symptoms (using logistic regression analysis).


RESULTS
An abnormal psychological state was found in 10% of AR patients, 13% with deuto-healthy, and remaining 77% of AR patients were completely healthy. The SCL-90 scores of the 377 patients were significantly higher than those of the normal standard population, including symptoms of somatization, compulsion, anxiety, rivalry and psychosis (t equals 7.128, 3.943, 2.777, 6.423, 7.507, respectively, all P < 0.01). Male patients had worse psychological state than femals, especially in the aspects of compulsion, depression, anxiety, crankiness and psychosis (t equals respectively 2.680, 1.977, 2.539, 2.107, 2.844, all P < 0.05). The SCL-90 scores of compulsion and horror were respectively different in different AR case history (F equals respectively 2.379, 2.255, all P < 0.05). AR complicated with asthma and eczema was the important factors that influenced patient's psychological status including compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, crankiness and psychosis (t equals respectively 6.835, 8.914, 7.254, 13.358, 6.030, all P < 0.01). There were no statistical differences in different ages, AR types, educational level, allergen types (all P > 0.05). Snuffle, sneeze and snivel had no influence on patient's SCL-90 scores (all P > 0.05). Itchy nose was a major symptom that affect on AR patients' SCL-90 scores of depression (standard regression b = 0.126, t = 2.076, P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
AR patients' psychological status was worse than that of the healthy adults.
Xi
Lin
L
Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Affiliated to the Capital University of Medical Science, Beijing Institute of Otorhinolaryngology, Key Laboratory of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100005, China.
Han
De-Min
DM
Lü
Xiao-Fei
XF
Zhang
Luo
L
D000485:Allergens; D001007:Anxiety; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders; D065631:Rhinitis, Allergic
D000485:Allergens