Allergologisch-medizinische und psychologische Befunde bei Patienten mit umweltbezogenen Beschwerden

Abstract

Background: Patients suffering from environmentally related health disorders show a multitude of complaints of uncertain origins and often with different psychopathological background. Therefore, the Basel environmental health disorders research project collected allergological-medical, psychological-psychiatric and environmental data from a sample of 63 patients with environment-related complaints. In this publication the following questions were investigated: which physical symptoms do these patients exhibit and how do these differ from comparative samples with the same goal as well as with studies aimed for epidemiological questions? Furthermore, psychological-psychiatric variables of patients with allergological and respiratory findings were compared to study subjects without allergic disorders. Results: The observed variety of complaints was in line with findings resulting from other environmentally related burden studies. General and non-specific symptoms such as sleeping disorders, tiredness, decreased concentration, nervousness, unspecific indisposition or hay fever were frequent. Bronchial asthma was reported in 16 cases (25%) which is a clearly higher frequency when compared with a normal sample. A positive prick test for inhaled allergens was shown by 36.5% of the patients and by 27% positive atopic serum parameters were detected. Patients with allergologicalmedical results reflected a heterogeneous psychological-psychiatric picture. Within specific psychological-psychiatric dimensions, statistically significant differences could be yielded out: asthmatics showed raised rates of depression, rhinoconjunctivitis patients showed unfavorable coping strategies. Conclusion: In patients with disorders related to the environment, allergic reaction may be more frequent and associated with specific psychological values; therefore, a thorough and 3-fold simultaneous diagnostic approach is justified and needed in patients with environment-related health complaints.