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 As the number of allergies increase, so do internalizing behavior
scores, the researchers found.
Internalizing behaviors include disorders, like anxiety or
depression, that develop when people keep their problems to
themselves, or "internalize" them.
“I think the surprising finding for us was that allergic rhinitis
has the strongest association with abnormal
anxiety/depression/internalizing scores compared to other allergic
diseases,” said lead author Dr. Maya K. Nanda of the division of
Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology, at Children’s Mercy Hospital in
Kansas City, Missouri.
Rhinitis includes the “hay fever” symptoms of runny nose, sneezing
and itchy, watery eyes.
The researchers studied 546 children who had skin tests and exams at
age one, two, three, four and seven and whose parents completed
behavioral assessments at age seven. They looked for signs of
sneezing and itchy eyes, wheezing or skin inflammation related to
allergies.
Parents answered 160 questions about their child’s behaviors and
emotions, including how often they seemed worried, nervous, fearful,
or sad.
Kids who had allergic sneezing and itchy or watery eyes or
persistent wheezing at age four tended to have higher depressive or
anxiety scores than others at age seven, the researchers reported in
Pediatrics.
Anxiety and depression scores increased as the number of allergies
increased.
“This study can't prove causation. It only describes a significant
association between these disorders, however we have hypotheses on
why these diseases are associated,” Nanda told Reuters Health by
email.
Children with allergic diseases may be at increased risk for
abnormal internalizing scores due to an underlying biological
mechanism, or because they modify their behavior in response to the
allergies, she said.
Like other chronic diseases, allergic diseases may trigger
maladaptive behaviors or emotions, she said, but some prior studies
support a biologic mechanism that involves allergy antibodies
triggering production of other substances that affect parts of the
brain that control emotions.
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Earlier studies have found links between allergies and anxiety
disorders such as panic attacks or generalized anxiety disorders,
Nanda said.
The new study took race, gender and other factors into account, “so
the strong association between allergic disease and internalizing
disorder we found is definitely present,” she said.
The severity of mental health symptoms varied in this study. Some
children had anxiety and depression that needs treatment, while
others were at risk and required monitoring, she said.
“We think this study calls for better screening by pediatricians,
allergists, and parents of children with allergic disease,” she
said. “Too often in my clinic I see allergic children with clinical
anxiety (or) depressive symptoms; however, they are receiving no
care for these conditions.”
“We don't know how treatment for allergic diseases may effect or
change the risk for internalizing disorders and we hope to study
this in the future,” Nanda said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1YMLJrb Pediatrics, online December 29, 2015.
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