Emotional disorders of asthmatic children.

Depression, anxiety, defiance and hostility in sixty asthmatic and non-asthmatic children of school age, all with the same familial and constitutional allergic background, were measured with the Mother-Child Questionnaire. In the sample as a whole it was found that boys were more disturbed than girls and high-dependent children were more disturbed than low-dependent children. However, asthmatic low-dependent children were significantly more disturbed than non-asthmatic low-dependent children, whereas asthmatic high-dependent children tend to be less disturbed than non-asthmatic high-dependent children. The findings show that emotional disorders in the asthmatic children are associated with pathogenic maternal family relationship patterns.