The Health Psychology: Asthma Medical Illness Essay Example

asthma have inflamed airways (Ogden ). Most people having asthma have a family history of pet allergies. Asthma can attack any person at any age but generally starts during infancy age.

Asthma symptoms might vary from a person to the other and also from time to time. There are cases where a patient does not have signs at all, while others might have a cough or wheeze (Hendrick ). But common symptoms are a persistent cough particular at night and early in the morning, shortness of breath, chest tightness and wheezing (squeaky sound in the chest during breathing).

Most people who have asthma are affected both psychologically and socially which finally impact their overall health status. Psychological variables in asthma could influence personal outcome. The analysis shows that the relation between asthma and medical psychological factors may be very complex to the patient. Interpretation of asthma symptoms is highly influenced by cognitive medical processes, where expression of measurable changes in immune and physiologic markers of asthma is highly detected (Hendrick ).

Asthma and major depressive disorder shares numerous risks and have similar characteristics such as cytokines, neuroendocrine stress response and neuropeptide (Ogden ). Symptoms and management of asthma are highly affected by Psychological factors; there is a clear link between the psychiatric diseases and asthma such as depression.

Psychological gaps such as faulty signs attribution, adoption or denial of the patient, and low self-esteem might lead to negative impact on treatment. The existence of a chronic and severe illness may exert a lot of stress that an anxiety or depressive disorder occurs in patients. Epidemiologic associations between central depressive disorder and asthma may be apparent (Hendrick ). Furthermore, there may be a mechanism of

central or peripheral nervous system dysfunction that predisposes patients to asthma or deteriorates the effect of asthma.

On the other hand, asthma has some social impacts on sick people or even the caretakers. This is primarily severe when the sign of the disease is not adequately controlled; and can lead to distress to the patient. The process of avoidance and management of the disease may also lead to difficulties in the patient life. Under social impact, the study dwells on this major categories; leisure pursuits and schooling.

The level at which children can participate in recreation activities mostly depend on the level of symptoms and how well the symptoms can be controlled. Asthma affects the ability of children to take part in sports. Depending on the degree of illness, some children might take sport which does not require much energy and avoid some. However, some children are restricted to participate in any game. Some asthmatic children are confined to come into contact with some animals to be specific, 20% of asthmatic children are supposed to get rid of pets (Hendrick ).

The need to stay away from pollen and smoke may widely prohibit a kid from participating in leisure activities. Therefore, failure to children to take part in recreational activities automatically leads to negative impact on siblings and their entire families. For example, parents may avoid going for their day to day activities in the evening or early in the morning to take control of their children (Ogden ).

Asthma, as one of medical associated diseases is the cause of children’s absenteeism in school. Children with asthma miss most days’ school and this lead to poor performance. School absence may result

in psychological problems where young kids feel much inferior or being over protected. The mental related issues could also ultimately trigger the symptoms of asthma (Ogden ).

Asthma has led to poor health conditions to the infected. The main health issue is falling on the ground and causing some injuries to patients due to oxygen deficiency of the patient. Hence, asthmatic is life-threatening, where a person is not able to breathe properly.

During treatment, the following steps are taken into consideration. The initial step is to confirm that the patient does suffer primarily from asthma and no other lung diseases; which is done through standard lung function tests (Ogden ). Standard lung function test will identify specific allergen(s) where the individual may be sensitive to while checking the existence of exact antibodies (Hendrick ). Minimization of environmental triggers and tailored inhaler therapy are the main treatment in the absence of a long-term cure.

Previously I thought asthma was a risky medical illness without cure but as the research demonstrated patients could easily get treated by this medical illness if only the patient suffering seek treatment at early stages of this disease. From this case study, I have understood various symptoms and perhaps measures of preventing this medical illness. Indeed, asthma, as the study has ultimately noted, can be cured to make such person healthy again.

References

1. Hendrick, D. J. "Recognition and surveillance of occupational asthma: a preventable illness with missed opportunities." British Medical Bulletin, vol. 95, no. 1, 2010, pp. 175-192.
2. Ogden, Jane. Health Psychology: A Textbook. Open UP/McGraw-Hill Education, 2007.