Comparative psychiatric studies on children and adolescents suffering from cystic fibrosis and bronchial asthma

Patients suffering from cystic fibrosis were compared to asthmatic children and to healthy controls with regard to psychopathology and family functioning. Furthermore, the relationship of some clinical parameters to psychopathology was examined in the clinical groups. Severity of the disease proved to be the most important determinant of psychopathology, since the group of severly ill patients suffering from cystic fibrosis had an excess of marked disturbances. Within this group a significant correlation of impaired pulmonary function and psychiatric disturbance was found. There were also some indications that among asthmatic children only the severly ill patients were in danger of psychiatric disorder. The predominant type of psychiatric disturbance was an emotional disorder. The three groups displayed only few differences in terms of disturbed family functioning.