A robust new study out of Taiwan has found evidence that people who suffer from allergies are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders.
These findings confirm smaller studies in which researchers have suggested the same. For those who suffer from allergies and mental health issues, it’s an important — and potentially validating — discovery. But for doctors who treat these conditions, it’s even more significant.
Published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, the study was the brainchild of Dr. Nian-Sheng Tzeng, a psychiatrist at Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei. An acting clinician at Tri-Service — a teaching hospital run by the country’s military — Tzeng told ScienceDaily that he began the research after noticing a pattern. “I observed that some patients with the three A’s appeared to suffer emotionally,” Tzeng said, referring to asthma, allergies, and atopic dermatitis (eczema). “Therefore, I wanted to clarify whether these allergic diseases are associated with psychiatric disorders.”
