What Is The Link, If Any, Between Depression And Asthma?

Dr. Aaron Waxman answers the question: 'Link Between Depression And Asthma?'

By
Aaron Waxman, M.D., Ph.D., Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital
August 11, 2008, 4:08 PM ET
2 min read

— -- Question:What is the link, if any, between depression and asthma?

Answer: So for a number of years now, people have been looking at the incidents of depression in patients with asthma. And that has also caused the question to be asked, "Does depression itself lead to an increased incidence of asthma?"

For more than 15 years people have had data to show that people who have asthma are at a greater risk for depression, and especially those people who have more severe asthma and are more impacted by their asthma. And the thought is there that just the fact that they're out of work or out of school more often, they're sick more often, they're more dependent on medication and on medical help that that leads to depression.

Now on the same time, people are starting to ask, "Is depression itself a risk factor for asthma?" And there have been some small population studies that do suggest there may be a correlation between depression and the development of asthma. But as yet, that's not definitively known.

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