Abstract
Childhood asthma and ADHD co-occur more frequently than their individual prevalence rates, with asthma disease severity being worse in these populations. The underlying cause of this is not known. There is evidence for autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation in both stress-induced compromise of pulmonary function in asthma and in ADHD. We assessed ANS dysfunction, in particular vagal reactivity, as a possible mechanism by which ADHD could worsen child asthma because vagal/cholinergic mechanisms mediate airway constriction. We tested these hypotheses: 1) children with asthma plus ADHD have greater asthma disease severity, worse pulmonary function, and greater vagal reactivity compared to children with asthma alone; and 2) greater asthma disease severity and worse pulmonary function are associated with greater vagal reactivity.
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