Psychiatric Morbidity and Behavioral Problems in Children and Adolescents with Bronchial Asthma

Objectives: Psychiatric morbidity and behavioral problems are quite common in children and adolescents with bronchial asthma, yet they remain underexplored and often ignored in clinical settings. This can impact the child's overall quality of life. There seems to be a dearth of Indian literature and so the current study was planned to assess psychological impact of asthma on the pediatric population.

Methods: Thirty children and adolescents, attending the Pediatric Chest Clinic at a tertiary care hospital in North India in the age group of 8-15 y having moderate to severe asthma formed the study group and matched healthy controls formed the other group. Sociodemographic and clinical details were obtained. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I. KID) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were applied.

Results: Irregular attendance at school was reported by 23.33% of the participants with asthma. About 17% of the thirty study-participants were diagnosed with specific phobia, 10% with conduct disorder, and 7% with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants in the study group had significantly more behavioral problems in the syndrome domain anxious/depressed and attention problems. Total CBCL scores were significantly higher in the study group as compared to the control group (t = 3.816, p = 0.0003), indicating the presence of more behavioral problems in pediatric population with bronchial asthma.

Conclusion: Children and adolescents with bronchial asthma have co-morbid psychiatric morbidities and behavioral problems.