Psychosocial aspects of asthma in adults

there is, in a majority of cases of bronchial asthma, a strong neurotic element. Many regard it as a neurosis”.1 In 1966 the authors of a popular general medical textbook included the following statement: “Psychological influ-ences play some part in nearly every asthmatic and quite often they appear to be mainly responsible, if not in starting the asthma, at least in maintaining it. Anxieties of various kinds, a sense of frustration, or frequently dis-cord and an atmosphere of tension in the home, often underlie the tension in the bronchi. Treatment is not likely to be satisfac-tory unless these influences are appreciated and the patient handled with sympathetic