Allergic Conditions Raise Mental Health Risk, Study Finds
Researchers have established in a new study that patients with allergic and atopic conditions have a substantially higher risk of suffering from mental illness. In one of the biggest UK study, comprising more than 5.6 million individuals, patients with conditions like food allergies, drug allergies, anaphylaxis, urticaria, and rhino-conjunctival allergic disease had higher incident rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders than individuals who did not have these conditions. The study concluded that allergic diseases are independently associated with a greater burden of mental ill health, which suggests a strong need to integrate psychological support into allergy services. This study was conducted by Sonica M. and colleagues published in the journal of BMJ Open.
Atopic and allergic diseases are increasing and can potentially have a substantial influence on quality of life, although their psychological burden has frequently been underestimated. This open cohort retrospective study examined whether there was a link between these conditions and a broad range of mental illness disorders. Researchers analyzed data from patients registered in UK primary care registers between January 1, 1995, and January 31, 2022. The main aim was to determine the rate of mental ill health, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, self-harm, and severe mental illness among atopic condition patients compared to a matched control without such conditions.
The research used information for 2,491,086 individuals with evidence of atopic disorders and compared them with 3,120,719 matched individuals with no evidence of atopic disease. The matching was performed using age (±2 years), sex, and socio-economic deprivation scores derived from the Townsend index. The mean age at recruitment was 39.42 years (SD 23.65) for the atopic group and 35.81 years (SD 22.17) for the non-atopic group. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of developing mental health disorders were estimated using Cox proportional hazard regression. Adjustments were made to the models for various variables like BMI, smoking, alcohol, asthma, eczema, and socio-economic deprivation.
Key Findings
A total of 229,124 subjects with atopic diseases developed a mental illness during follow-up.
This is equivalent to an incidence rate (IR) of 144.13 per 10,000 person-years in the atopic group.
As a comparison, 203,450 subjects in the non-atopic group had mental illness, which carried an IR of 117.82 per 10,000 person-years.
This provided a hazard ratio for adjustment 1.16 (95% CI: 1.15–1.17), which was equivalent to a 16% increased risk of mental ill health among the atopic population.
Among the single conditions examined, anxiety had the strongest association, with an aHR of 1.22 (95% CI: 1.21–1.23).
The results remained after performing a sensitivity analysis that also adjusted participants for asthma and eczema.
The study concludes that individuals with allergic and atopic diseases are significantly vulnerable to developing mental illness, especially depression and anxiety. Both physical and emotional needs meeting in this group could significantly enhance quality of life and outcome.
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