Depression and Anxiety Linked to Allergies in Kids
Research suggests that children with "internalizing" disorders like depression and anxiety and more likely to have allergies.
Internalizing disorders are those which are focused within the self, for example, phobias, anxiety and depression. These are contrasted with externalizing disorders, such as ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder, where the disorder affects people around the child.
Out of a sample of 184 children between the ages of four and twenty, 105 (57 percent) had a history of allergic disorders, such as asthma, hay fever, hives and eczema. Of this same sample, 124 (67 percent) had an internalizing disorder, either alone or in combination with an externalizing disorder.
The researchers found that those with an internalizing disorder were almost twice as likely to have a history of allergies than kids with other psychiatric disorders.
According to Dr. Mauricio Infante and colleagues from University of Wisconsin, Madison, these findings indicate that internalizing disorders like depression and anxiety and allergic disorders "may share risk factors and underlying pathways that contribute to the development of both types of disorders."
The study appeared in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Comments
I found this information very interesting. In addition could there be a connection to ADHD and allergies as well?
They have ALMOST figured it out! Eventually it will dawn on them there is a connection between allergies and sleep apnea too, and sleep apnea is already known to cause depression. I could not sleep as a child and still can’t when exposed to allergens. I didn’t have asthma. I had stopped up sinuses and a swollen throat. I was running on adrenalin since I could not sleep. It eventually caught up with me around 4th to 5th grade. I went down hill emotionally and every which way. I figured out by JR High what the problem was, had a name for it by 14 though none of my doctors had even heard of sleep apnea, and had my first sleep study at 17. It was a tragic waste of time and money. I wasn’t allergic to the sleep clinic environment and slept fine. I was a skinny, female teenager with Aspergers syndrome too which limits my ability to convince anybody about anything. They thought at that time only over weight, middle aged men had it. No one believed me. I was 32 before I could start getting any real help. Now they know.
I didn’t have childhood allergies, but my sister did, from milk allergies as an infant. Due to ongoing severe child abuse, both of us developed depression. She now has fibromyalgia, and has had severe acne, makeup allergies, and respiratory allergies for decades. Her theory is that our bodies developed acute sensitivities to protect ourselves from the abuse.
I’ve a grandson who is mildly autistic and he’s had food allergies ( nuts),and respiratory allergies since early childhood, and developed Chron’s disease at 14, and finds life as a teen extremely stressful and exhausting ( suburban overachiever…).