The battery of asthma illness behavior, II: Independence from airways hyperreactivity

Abstract

Bronchial asthma is an illness particularly susceptible to psychological and behavioral exacerbation and perpetuation. The Battery of Asthma Illness Behavior has demonstrated a remarkable ability to identify such psychomaintenance potentials in chronic asthmatic patients. The present study advances previous research by showing that BAIB scores are independent of degree of airways hyperreactivity. This finding strengthens the assertion that the BAIB assesses psychomaintenance potentials independent from the objective medical parameters of the illness.

Alexithymic Asthmatics: The Miscommunication of Affective and Somatic States

“…Since Kleiger and Dirks [4] found no differences in pulmonary functions (FEVi/FVC%) between groups defined by alexithymia, experienced differences of breathing difficulty in alexithymies cannot be accounted for by differences in the objective severity of their asthma. Furthermore, Dirks et al [10,11] established that the symptomatology measured by the ASC is independent of airways hyperreactivity and longi tudinal pulmonary functions. Taken at face value, the results indicate that alexithymic patients, independent of the severity of their illness, minimize the physical and emotional components of their asthma during acute exac erbations.…”

Subjective symptomatology of asthma in an outpatient population.

“…These considerations led researchers at the National Jewish Hospital-National Asthma Center in Denver to develop the Battery of Asthma Illness Behavior, which is designed to assess the characteristics of adults associated with effective self-management of asthma (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). A key element in this battery is the Asthma Symptoms Checklist (ASC) (13,14), a Likert-type instrument on which patients report the frequency with which 36 specific symptoms occur in connection with their asthma attacks.…”