Bronchial Asthima in the Functional Psychoses

Abstract

Bronchial asthma is a relatively rare disease among psychotic individuals in that only 10 cases were found in a group of 11,647 patients afflicted with a functional psychosis. This yields an 0.08 per cent incidence, contrasting markedly to 1.5 to 2 per cent found in the general population. In comparison to an inheritance allergic factor present to at least a 40 per cent incidence among sufferers of bronchial asthma in the general population, psychotics with this somatic disease present 100 per cent incidence. There was at least one member in the immediate family who had bronchial asthma. The cases were found in three groups of the functional psychoses, viz., dementia praecox, showing an incidence of 0.06 per cent; manic-depressive with an incidence of 0.5 per cent which was highest; and the paranoia and paranoid condition group showing an incidence of 0.15 per cent. In this survey it was found that patients with bronchial asthma who classified in the dementia praecox group had not regressed to the level where hallucinations, untidiness in toilet habits, or convulsions appeared. All were oriented and easily “contacted.” In a survey of four large general mental State Institutions in Illinois, and one institution of 4570 population, restricted to mental defectives and to epileptics, there was not one case of bronchial asthma to be found in a mental defective or in an epileptic.