In the second study, a separate team of researchers followed more than 160,000 Taiwanese teenagers with and without asthma for over a decade.
While suicide was a very rare occurrence overall, the asthmatic teenagers were more than twice as likely to kill themselves during that time, the study found. The likelihood of suicide was even higher among teens who experienced several asthmatic symptoms, such as night cough or severe wheezing.
In all, about 1 in 14 of the suicides may have been due to asthma, according to the study. The researchers suggest that a confluence of physical, psychological, and social challenges related to asthma may be to blame.
The finding wasn’t a total surprise, as previous research in the U.S. has linked asthma to suicide, as well as to anxiety and depression.
The study “is very provocative and needs replication,” says Wayne Katon, MD, the chief of psychiatric services at the University of Washington Medical Center, in Seattle. “The implication is that doctors should be screening for depression, anxiety, and suicidality in their patients with asthma.”
There may be a genetic connection between asthma and depression, Dr. Katon says, but many young people with asthma also face everyday difficulties that may contribute to psychological distress. For instance, they may have to avoid some social activities (such as athletics), they are disproportionately likely to live in poverty, and they have to take medications.
In fact, some asthma medications have been linked to suicide risk in the past. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began a review of asthma drugs in 2008 after reports of mood changes and suicidal behavior in people taking the drug Singulair, but so far the agency hasn’t found any firm evidence of such a connection.
The main weakness of the study, according to Dr. Katon, is that the researchers didn’t track which individuals developed anxiety or depression during the study, which prevented them from fully assessing how mental health may have affected suicide independent of asthma.
