Open AccessPsychiatric co-morbidity and asthma: A pilot study utilizing a free use tool to improve asthma care
Author(s) -
Jacquelyn Paquet,
Dennell Mah,
Emad Saad,
Jeremy Beach,
Dilini Vethanayagam
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
clinical and investigative medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.391
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1488-2353
pISSN - 0147-958X
DOI - 10.25011/cim.v42i4.33115
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , psychiatry , panic disorder , agoraphobia , mini international neuropsychiatric interview , anxiety , generalized anxiety disorder , major depressive disorder , depression (economics) , population , pediatrics , mood , environmental health , economics , macroeconomics
Purpose: To assess the prevalence of co-morbid psychiatric disorders in asthmatic patients in a Western Canadian Regional Severe Asthma Center.
Methods: A prospective study was completed of patients evaluated through the Edmonton Regional Severe Asthma Clinic (ERSAC). A standardised evaluation, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) screen was used to identify possible psychiatric disorders.
Results: Twenty-four individuals with moderate to severe asthma, who presented for treatment at ERSAC, were recruited and underwent assessment with the MINI screen. The average patient age was 48 years (range 18–81 years). Nine patients were male and fifteen were female. Twenty subjects (83%) screened positive for a possible psychiatric co-morbidity using the MINI screen. The most common psychiatric co-morbidities identified were post-traumatic stress disorder (50% of the sampled population), depressive episode or persistent depressive disorder (42%), substance/alcohol abuse (33%), generalized anxiety disorder (335), manic episode (25%), agoraphobia (21%), panic disorder (21%) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (17%). Some individuals had more than one concomitant possible psychiatric co-morbidity identified by the MINI screen.
Conclusions: Psychiatric co-morbidity was confirmed to be common in patients with moderate-severe asthma. In individuals with asthma, the MINI screen appeared to be a simple and useful clinical tool to screen for untreated/sub-optimally-managed psychiatric co-morbidities that may impact management.