Photo Credit: Rudzhan Nagiev
The following is a summary of “Association between allergic diseases and mental health conditions: an umbrella review,” published in the November 2024 issue of Allergy and Immunology by Xu et al.
The link between allergic diseases and mental health is unclear in terms of consistency and magnitude.
Researchers conducted a prospective study to analyze the evidence on allergic diseases and mental health, aiming to establish a hierarchy of evidence and identify research gaps.
They searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database through April 30, 2024. They included systematic reviews with meta-analyses on allergic diseases and mental health, calculating the summary effect estimates (odds ratio [OR]), 95% confidence intervals (CI), I2 statistic, 95% prediction interval, small study effects, and excess significance biases estimates and using AMSTAR 2 to assess quality.
The results showed 21 studies with 37 associations (38,440,5,029 total population) between allergic diseases and mental health. Evidence was convincing (class I) for asthma and ADHD (OR 1.34, 1.24-1.44), and highly suggestive (class II) for rhinitis and tic disorders (OR 2.61, 1.90-3.57), rhinitis and sleep disorders (OR 2.17, 1.87-2.53), food allergy and ASD (OR 2.79, 2.08-3.75), atopic dermatitis and depression (OR 1.60, 1.43-1.79), anxiety (OR 1.62, 1.42-1.85), ADHD (OR 1.28, 1.18-1.40), suicidal ideation (OR 1.44, 1.25-1.65), asthma and depression (OR 1.64, 1.50-1.78), anxiety (OR 1.95, 1.68-2.26), tic disorders (OR 1.90, 1.57-2.30), suicidal ideation (OR 1.52, 1.37-1.70), and suicide attempts (OR 1.60, 1.33-1.92).
The study concluded that allergic diseases are linked to mental health risks, with asthma showing the strongest evidence. They called for further studies to establish causality.
Source: jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(24)01174-6/abstract
