The Relationship Between Psychosocial Aspects and Aggravation of Childhood Asthma

The relationship between psychosocial aspects of asthmatic children and aggravation of asthma was investigated. Five studies investigated (1) the acquisition of basic trust and initiative development; (2) the psychological factors of asthma; (3) personality traits; (4) basic habits of life; and (5) problem behaviors. The more severe their asthma and the older patients became, the more psychosocial disturbances tended to appear. It can be tentatively concluded that psychosocial disturbances were secondarily caused by recurrent asthma; the disturbances, in turn, promoted aggravation of the patients' asthma. The results suggest that asthmatic children should be comprehensively treated in the early stages of asthma.