Higher risk of developing major depression and bipolar disorder in later life among adolescents with asthma: A nationwide prospective study
Section snippets
Data source
The National Health Insurance (NHI) program was implemented in 1995, and covers up to 99% of all 23,000,000 residents of Taiwan (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/). The NHIRD was audited and released by the National Health Research Institute. Comprehensive information on insured subjects is included in the database, including demographic data, dates of clinical visits, and disease diagnoses. The diagnostic codes used were based on the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical
Results
In our study, 1453 subjects with a mean age of 11.65 ± 1.62 years and male predominance (58.2%) were identified as having the diagnosis of asthma. Among them, 591 (40.7%) adolescents with asthma had ever used the inhaled corticosteroids during the follow-up period. Subjects with asthma exhibited a higher incidence of mood disorders and comorbid allergic diseases, including major depression (2.8% vs. 1.1%, p < 0.001), any depressive disorder (6.1% vs. 2.6%, p < 0.001), bipolar disorder (1.0% vs.
Discussion
Our results supported the study hypothesis that adolescents with asthma exhibited a higher risk of developing unipolar depressive disorder and bipolar disorder than the control group after adjusting for demographic data and comorbid allergic diseases. The use of inhaled corticosteroids was not related to the risk of developing mood disorders among those adolescents with asthma.
Many previous studies have proposed the existence of a comorbid relationship between asthma and mood disorders (Goodwin
Contribution
Dr MHC, Dr TPS, and Dr YMB designed the study and wrote the protocol and manuscripts; Dr YMB, Dr TPS, Dr YSC, Dr JWH, and Dr KLH assisted with the preparation and proof-reading of the manuscript; Dr YMB, Dr TJC, and Ms WHC provided the advices on statistical analysis.
Conflict of interest
We declared that there is no conflict of interest.
Role of funding source
The study was supported by grant from Taipei Veterans General Hospital (V102D-001-2). There is no further role in any step of the present study.
Acknowledgment
We thank Mr I-Fan Hu's friendship and support.
We thank Dr MHC, Dr TPS, and Dr YMB, who designed the study, wrote the protocol and manuscripts, Dr YMB, Dr TPS, Dr YSC, Dr JWH, and Dr KLH, who assisted with the preparation and proof-reading of the manuscript, and Dr YMB, Dr TJC, and Ms WHC, who provided the advices on statistical analysis.
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