Asthma in children and adolescents: socio-economic and psycho-somatic considerations.

Bronchial asthma, despite the theoretical and experimental medical progress, remains the most frequently seen chronic disease of the children and has a heavy impact on global morbidity and mortality. The inadequate psychological approach to the asthmatic child and his family can be responsible for this failure in asthma control. We present here the psychosomatic characteristics of the child with asthma and his parents. Some suggestions are made, concerning the correct approach to the patient and parents: how to address parents' trust in current diagnostic and therapeutic resources (in steroids, especially), their personal beliefs regarding asthma and how to tackle the drift towards unconventional medicine.