Psychosomatic Medicine 23:305-310 (1961)
© 1961 American Psychosomatic Society

A Preliminary Comparison of Rapidly Remitting and Persistently "Steroid-Dependent" Asthmatic Children

¹ Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children, Denver

Asthmatic children were divided into two groups based on response of their asthmatic symptomatology to separation from the parental home. The rapidly remitting group (Group 1) refers to those children who dramatically became symptom-free and remained so without medication while at JNHAC. The steroid-dependent group (Group 2) refers to those children requiring continuous maintenance corticosteroids for symptom control. In this study an initial assessment of the relative weight of some psychological influences in the two groups was undertaken. On the basis of parents' reports, significantly more neurotic symptoms and a later age of onset of the asthma were characteristic of the rapidly remitting group. There was, however, no significant difference in the frequency with which asthma-related symptoms--e.g., coughing and nasal discharge --were reported. Results of a parent-attitude test suggested that parents of rapidly remitting children more often subscribe to certain attitudes on child rearing and family relationships that are generally accepted as psychologically undesirable--e.g., hostile rejecting--than do parents of steroid-dependent children.

The data were interpreted as indicative of more frequent occurrence of psychological disturbance among rapidly remitting children and their families, although certain reservations were noted. The importance of treating these groups separately in future psychological investigations of the asthmatic child has been emphasized.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. K. Fritz, H. Steiner, J. Hilliard, and N. Lewiston Pediatric and Psychiatric Collaboration in the Management of Childhood Asthma Clinical Pediatrics, December 1, 1981; 20(12): 772 - 777. [Abstract] [PDF]