Psychosomatic studies of allergic disorders

Abstract

It is generally conceded that allergic disorders occur in individuals who have a hereditary or congenital allergic constitution. Clinical symptoms of allergic disorders, however, often disappear due to changes of the individuals' life situations and/or their adaptive patterns. In a comparative study of allergic predisposition in students with allergic disorder (asthmatics) and students who had become completely free from childhood asthma for more than 3 years, without specific treatment, there was no significant difference in allergic predisposition between the two groups. The same tendency was also found between adult patients with allergic disorder (asthmatics) and persons who had shown complete remission for more than 3 years, having had psychosomatic treatment. These findings suggest that allergic predisposition does not influence the prognosis of allergic disorders as much as do socio-psychological factors. It is thought that the effect of psychosomatic treatment reconditions these socio-psychological factors which disturb homeostatic balance and which facilitate the clinical manifestation based on the allergic predisposition.