Women with asthma are more anxious, find it harder to sleep and are more tired during the day than their male counterparts, but nevertheless tend to be better at following their treatment, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in close collaboration with Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
“Men and women with asthma differ biologically, socially, culturally and psychologically, which affects their quality of life,” says Rosita Sundberg, a doctoral student at the Sahlgrenska Academy and allergy coordinator at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. “It’s important that we take account of this when caring for teenagers and young adults with asthma.”
Even as teenagers and young adults, women with asthma feel worse than their male counterparts. In one of the studies covered by the thesis, just over a hundred men and women around the age of 20 with severe or moderate asthma responded to a questionnaire on how their day-to-day lives are affected by the illness. The women felt more strongly that they are limited by their asthma. (more…)
4
A Risk Factor In Childhood Asthma Symptoms May Be Mother’s Depression
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Asthma
Asthma symptoms can worsen in children with depressed mothers, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center published online in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Analyzing data from interviews with 262 mothers of African-American children with asthma – a population disproportionately affected by this inflammatory airway disorder – the Hopkins investigators found that children whose mothers had more depressive symptoms had more frequent asthma symptoms during the six-months of the study. Conversely, children whose mothers reported fewer depressive symptoms had less frequent asthma symptoms.
Researchers tracked ups and downs in maternal depression as related to the frequency of symptoms among children.
“Even though our research was not set up to measure just how much a mom’s depression increased the frequency of her child’s symptoms, a clear pattern emerged in which the latter followed the earlier,” says senior investigator Kristin Riekert, Ph.D., a pediatric psychologist and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Adherence Research Center. (more…)
4
Mother’s Depression A Risk Factor In Childhood Asthma Symptoms
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Asthma
Maternal depression can worsen asthma symptoms in their children, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center published online in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
Analyzing data from interviews with 262 mothers of African-American children with asthma a population disproportionately affected by this inflammatory airway disorder the Hopkins investigators found that children whose mothers had more depressive symptoms had more frequent asthma symptoms during the six-months of the study. Conversely, children whose mothers reported fewer depressive symptoms had less frequent asthma symptoms.
Researchers tracked ups and downs in maternal depression as related to the frequency of symptoms among children. (more…)
Vaccination can lower children’s risk of allergy. Cathleen Muche-Borowski and her coauthors present a clinical practice guideline for allergy prevention in the current issue of Deutsches Arzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2009; 106[39]: 625-31).
Allergic diseases are becoming increasingly common in Western industrialized countries. As there is still no etiologically based treatment of allergic asthma, hay fever, or atopic eczema, the prevention of these diseases is a matter of special importance.
The majority of the 217 studies that the authors analyzed documented a protective effect of fish consumption in the diet of both the mother and the child. Soy-based baby food, in contrast, has no protective effect. In fact, because preparations of this type contain phytoestrogens, the authors even express concern about a potential harmful effect on health. Furthermore, delaying the introduction of solid food in the child’s diet was not shown to have any beneficial effect on the development of allergy in the German cohort studies that the authors reviewed. (more…)
4
Have Egg Allergy? You May Still Be Candidate For Flu Vaccines, Says Allergist
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Allergy
As flu season got underway this fall, Dr. Catherine Monteleone, an allergist, noticed that her office started to receive an unusually high number of calls from people with egg allergy. They previously had avoided flu vaccines because of their sensitivity to eggs. This year, with all the attention being paid to the novel H1N1 influenza, those patients want to be protected against flu, and they contacted her to find out if they are candidates for inoculation.
“Seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccines are produced in chicken embryos eggs so people who have egg allergy generally avoid them,” Monteleone, an associate professor of medicine at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, explained. “But there are ways to get vaccinated.”
Patients first should consult with an allergist about the risks and benefits of vaccination, she recommends. Those with a known history of egg allergy or those who suspect an egg allergy must then undergo a skin test for egg allergy and for the vaccine. “Some people think they have an egg allergy because they experience abdominal upset from eating eggs, but that may not be a true allergy,” she said. “That may be intolerance.” (more…)
4
Investigational Sublingual Allergy Immunotherapy Tablet Meets Primary Endpoint In A Study Of Adult Subjects With A History Of Grass Pollen Allergies
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Allergy
Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced that its investigational sublingual Grass (Phleum Pratense) Allergy Immunotherapy Tablet (AIT) has met the primary endpoint in a Phase III study of adult subjects in the U.S. with a history of grass pollen induced rhinoconjunctivitis with or without asthma. The investigational Grass AIT treatment is designed to work by inducing a protective immune response against grass pollen allergy and providing sustained prevention of allergy symptoms, treating both the symptoms and the underlying cause of the disease.
The study was a U.S. multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of the grass sublingual tablet versus placebo in the treatment of grass pollen-induced rhinoconjunctivitis based on the combined (sum of) rhinoconjunctivitis daily symptom score (DSS) and rhinoconjunctivitis daily medication score (DMS) averaged over the entire grass pollen season (GPS). In the study 439 adults were randomized to receive either placebo or grass tablet. The study met its primary endpoint. Additionally, the adverse events experienced by subjects receiving the drug in this study were similar to previous studies in adults and include oral itching, with no new or unexpected findings. (more…)
