Severe depression risk factor for asthma and COPD

The researchers found depression severity to be associated with asthma, respiratory symptoms, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The correlation between depression and cough and asthma was corrected by gender, and the depressive state was shown to be an independent risk factor for COPD and asthma.

Depression is a common clinical psychiatric disorder with characteristics of recurrent and persistent low mood, low energy, and lack of pleasure, causing serious health problems and placing a heavy burden on society. Respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing, cough, and exertional dyspnoea, are recognisable to patients and may be a marker of mortality and underlying chronic disease risk. They are typical of asthma and COPD, which have a serious impact on people's mental and physical health.

Xue Liu, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China, and colleagues aimed to explore the relationship between depression severity and cough, wheeze and exertional dyspnoea.

For this purpose, they used fitted curves and weighted logistic regression analysis to explore the relationship between depression severity and respiratory symptoms. They also examined the relationship between depression COPD and asthma. Stratified analyses were used to analyse specific populations.

The researchers reported the following findings:

• 10,142 subjects were weighted to reflect the entire US population. Using the population without depression as a reference, the risk of cough and asthma in the severely depressed population was 3.32 times (OR 3.324) and 2.84 times (OR 2.842) higher than that in the population without depressive symptoms, and the risk of asthma and COPD was 2.4 times and 2.6 times (OR 2.410).
• In subgroup analyses, the correlation between depression scores and the prevalence of cough and wheezing was corrected for gender level.
• Smoking status and marital status were interaction factors between depression score and prevalence of cough.
• The prevalence of exertional dyspnoea by depression score was influenced by cardiovascular disease (CVD).

"Our study further revealed the relationship between depression severity and the risk of asthma, respiratory symptoms, and COPD," the researchers wrote. "We further found the effect of gender on the relationship between depression and respiratory symptoms, and depression was an independent risk factor for the prevalence of COPD and asthma."

"This finding provides new insights into managing respiratory symptoms and chronic respiratory diseases," they concluded.

Reference:

Sun, Y., Zhang, Y., Bai, W., & Liu, X. (2023). Relationship between depression severity and respiratory symptoms in US adults: A national cross-sectional study. Respiratory Medicine, 220, 107451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2023.107451