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• Mental health associations
  Antonise R Adderley
  Published on: 28 October 2022
• A Unjustifiable Truth
  Christopher J Bethel
  Published on: 29 March 2019
• Re: Mental health associations with eczema, asthma, and hay fever in children: a cross-sectional survey
  Tarvis K. Ambrose
  Published on: 5 January 2017
• Further Suggestions as to the Relationship between Mental Health and Atopic Diseases
  Frida Blackwell
  Published on: 16 November 2016

• Published on: 28 October 2022

  Mental health associations

  • Antonise R Adderley, Student University of The Bahamas

  I am responding to the captioned article published on October 14, 2016. The study was quite insightful, in my opinion. It became clear to me as I read the article that physical illness is often associated with mental health issues, especially in children. Despite no direct links between mental illness and diagnosis, factors such as gender, age, and family history increase the likelihood of developing a mental disorder. Children with allergic diseases are also identified to have anxiety, emotional, and behavioral problems.

  A previous study revealed that asthma during early childhood may precede internalizing behaviors during adolescence, suggesting that allergies may contribute to mental illness. To plan effective treatment interventions for this potentially at-risk population, health care practitioners should inform themselves about the increased vulnerability of young girls with childhood eczema to mental health problems.

  According to the original study, the behavior of the child might be influenced by their perception of their appearance, which might affect their psychological development. The outward appearance of children with atopic diseases may aggravate their humiliation and lead them to withdraw from social situations. The discomfort and pain associated with these diseases leaves affected individuals feeling irritated by their very nature. Bronkhorst, Schellack, and Motswaledi (2016), shared these thoughts when they identified five areas that were lik...

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  I am responding to the captioned article published on October 14, 2016. The study was quite insightful, in my opinion. It became clear to me as I read the article that physical illness is often associated with mental health issues, especially in children. Despite no direct links between mental illness and diagnosis, factors such as gender, age, and family history increase the likelihood of developing a mental disorder. Children with allergic diseases are also identified to have anxiety, emotional, and behavioral problems.

  A previous study revealed that asthma during early childhood may precede internalizing behaviors during adolescence, suggesting that allergies may contribute to mental illness. To plan effective treatment interventions for this potentially at-risk population, health care practitioners should inform themselves about the increased vulnerability of young girls with childhood eczema to mental health problems.

  According to the original study, the behavior of the child might be influenced by their perception of their appearance, which might affect their psychological development. The outward appearance of children with atopic diseases may aggravate their humiliation and lead them to withdraw from social situations. The discomfort and pain associated with these diseases leaves affected individuals feeling irritated by their very nature. Bronkhorst, Schellack, and Motswaledi (2016), shared these thoughts when they identified five areas that were likely to be impacted in a child with eczema including: mental, physical, and emotional health, vitality, and social functioning. In addition, sleep deprivation, behavioral problems, and social isolation are among the challenges children with atopic eczema face.

  Moreover, extending the significance of the findings would have been a helpful addition to the study. Atopic disease and mental health disorders are comorbid, according to the authors. To progress research in this field of immunology, I would have liked to learn more about how this might be applied and what kind of future studies could be proposed.

  Overall this article covered gave insightful information about mental illness and the effects that can cause mental illnesses

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 29 March 2019

  A Unjustifiable Truth

  • Christopher J Bethel, Full Time Nursing Student Student at The University of The Bahamas

  With Cain interest in your titled text i begin my journey in reading. i thought to myself that these are prevalent medical conditions that are both acute and chronic in nature, and with level of bullying, and peer-pressure in the school environment; have finally found a scientific relation to the emotional responses these children my face based upon your study? and the answer in my opinion is no. i found it to be an over reaching of the facts, and i found that it relied heavily on outside factors that had no relation to the participants. their parent socioeconomic background or level of educational background would've no relevance to their mental state. had you look at their interactions with their peers at school and the exacerbation of their diseases you would've been better justified; because it is a known fact that a increase in stress levels lead to an attack in these diseased conditions. and lastly i found it to be bias in nature the correlations i viewed were interpreting that kids from a lower socioeconomic background were more likely to develop problems more frequently then those from the more affluent backgrounds.

  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 5 January 2017

  Re: Mental health associations with eczema, asthma, and hay fever in children: a cross-sectional survey

  • Tarvis K. Ambrose, student
  • Other Contributors:
    • Terry Campbell

  This response is in relation to the above captioned article, published October 14, 2016. I must state that this was quite an insightful study. As I read the article, I began to realize with no doubt that there are physical illnesses associated with the development of mental health issues, particularly in children. I must agree with the author, that while there are no direct links to diagnose a mental illness, there are fac...

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  This response is in relation to the above captioned article, published October 14, 2016. I must state that this was quite an insightful study. As I read the article, I began to realize with no doubt that there are physical illnesses associated with the development of mental health issues, particularly in children. I must agree with the author, that while there are no direct links to diagnose a mental illness, there are factors that increase the likelihood of developing a mental disorder such as gender, age, and family history. Furthermore, the result shows a correlation between children diagnosed with allergic diseases and psychological conditions such as anxiety, emotional and behavioral problems.

  Despite the original study not being able to determine a direct cause, a suggestion can be the child's perception of their appearance which may affect the psychological development Because atopic diseases impact outward appearance, it is likely to result in physical embarrassment and social withdrawal among children. Like the captioned study, research has pointed to the fact that the very nature of these diseases, leaves the affected individual feeling irritated due to the pain and discomfort experienced. Bronkhorst, Schellack, and Motswaledi (2016), shared these thoughts when they identified five areas that were likely to be impacted in a child with eczema including: mental, physical, and emotional health, vitality, and social functioning. The authors also stated that children with atopic eczema face challenges such as sleep deprivation, increased behavioral problems and social isolation.

  It must also be noted that there are distinct links between asthma and psychological distress. In the captioned study, it was noted that there was an increase in emotional problems related to asthma and distress. Similarly, Van Lieshout and MacQueen (2012), found that individuals with asthma display higher rates of depression and anxiety than the general public. Van Lieshout and MacQueen also found that unlike other chronic illnesses, asthma is more likely to be deleterious to emotional well- being especially among children. Overtime as the illness progresses, the individual develops anxiety and a state of learned helplessness (Katon, Richardson , Lozano and McCauley, 2004).

  This is quite a timely study that lends insight into the nature of the association of mental disorders, emotional well-being, and the physical illnesses as captioned. It provides evidence that children are in fact affected emotionally by their outward appearance and this in turn affects their levels of socialization. Effective steps therefore need to be taken to protect the mental health of such a vulnerable group, through peer and individual counselling as well as therapy. In addition, health promotional strategies can be implemented to prevent further outbreaks and effectively manage the symptoms of allergic diseases, thereby improving emotional well-being.

  References

  Bronkhorst, E., Schellack, N., & Motswaledi, M. H. (2016). Effects of childhood atopic eczema on the quality of life. Current Allergy & Clinical Immunology, 29(1), 18-22.

  Katon, W. J., Richardson, L., Lozano, P., & McCauley, E. (2004). The relationship of asthma and anxiety disorders. Psychosomatic Medicine , 66(3), 349-355

  Van Lieshout, R. J., & MacQueen, G. M. (2012). Relations between asthma and psychological distress: An old idea revisited. Chemical Immunology and Allergy , 98,1-13. Doi: 10.1159/000336493

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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• Published on: 16 November 2016

  Further Suggestions as to the Relationship between Mental Health and Atopic Diseases

  • Frida Blackwell, MSc(A) Candidate

  To Whom It May Concern:

  I am writing in response to the article "Mental health associations with eczema, asthma and hay fever in children: a cross-sectional survey" published on October 14th 2016 in Volume 6 Issue 10 of BMJ Open.

  This study sought to determine whether the socioeconomic position (SEP) of parents had an impact on their children's mental health for those children who had symptoms or diagn...

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  To Whom It May Concern:

  I am writing in response to the article "Mental health associations with eczema, asthma and hay fever in children: a cross-sectional survey" published on October 14th 2016 in Volume 6 Issue 10 of BMJ Open.

  This study sought to determine whether the socioeconomic position (SEP) of parents had an impact on their children's mental health for those children who had symptoms or diagnoses of an atopic disease. This cross sectional survey required families to self-report on health, lifestyle, and disease symptoms, while dividing children's mental health into emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems.

  I found the study very relevant as the authors explain that there is very little research exploring the reasons why atopic diseases are associated with mental health problems, particularly in children. However, the results of their study concluded that there was no significant relationship between the family's SEP and the children's health outcomes. The study instead determined that children with lower educated primary caregivers experienced more mental health problems regardless of symptoms of atopic disease.

  It is valuable that the authors have been able to quantify the association between mental health disorders in children with symptoms of these three common childhood illnesses, yet it has already been well established that atopic diseases leads to social impairment as the authors themselves reference several studies supporting these findings. What I appreciated most was the authors' suggestions of alternative hypotheses in their discussion section as to why there may be a correlation between children's mental disorders and atopic symptoms, for example stress level in parents or prenatal exposure to smoking. I would have appreciated more discussion on other biological aspects such as the heritability of both atopic diseases and mental health disorders, and the effects of various environmental factors. Allergies and auto-immune disorders have for some time been hypothesized to be a result of over-cleanliness particularly in the western world and this phenomenon was not taken into account even with the large amount of literature available on the topic (Strachan, 1989; Okada et al., 2010).

  The study could also have been strengthened by the authors expanding upon the significance of their findings. The authors concluded by stating that healthcare professionals need to be aware of the comorbidity of atopic disease and mental health disorders, however I would have liked to learn more about the implications of this and what kind of future studies are suggested to further the advancement of research into this field of immunology.

  Regards,

  Frida Blackwell MSc(Applied) - Nursing Candidate

  References:

  Okada, H., Kuhn, C., Feillet, H., & Bach, J.-F. (2010). The 'hygiene hypothesis' for autoimmune and allergic diseases: An update. Clinical & Experimental Immunology, 160; 1-9. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2249.2010.04139.x/full

  Strachan, D. P. (1989). Hay fever, hygiene, and household size. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 299(6710), 1259-1260. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1838109/pdf/bmj00259-0027.pdf

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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