Bio-psycho-social Characteristics of Asthma with Psychogenic Trigger, Emerging from Personal Experimental Studies

Like other multifactorial syndromes, the onset of bronchial asthma with psychogenic trigger (BAPT) is infl uenced by psychological stimuli, supplementary to organ-specifi c factors (allergens, viruses, bacteria, physical or chemical irritants etc.). Demonstration of psychogenic etiology was made by questionnaires applied to asthmatic patients, with respect to the stressing circumstances of asthma crises, including the observations of physicians and, especially, by recording the clinical (acoustic) and ventilator variations during experimental distresses. Patients with BAPT, having an increased vulnerability to stress – based on a complex background (genetic and acquired) and involved in the immune response – have consumed their adaptive “reserves” through the biological and psychological stresses they suffered before/during the illness, in fi nal having available a much reduced reserve of cortisol (the main stress hormone). Thus, their above-mentioned vulnerability to psychic stress is increased by a vicious circle, becoming also a biological vulnerability. The psychotherapeutic approach could improve both vulnerabilities – biological and psychological.