Allergic rhinitis: relationships with anxiety and mood syndromes

In this article, the authors examine the preponderance of publications pertaining to relationships between allergies and anxiety and mood syndromes. Through a review of the relevant articles in the PubMed and PsycINFO databases, the authors found that the majority of studies (9 of 11 studies on anxiety syndromes, 10 of 12 studies on depressive syndromes) indicate associations between allergies and anxiety/mood syndromes, despite a number of methodological variances. In addition, there appear to be a number of potential variables that mediate the relationship between allergies and these two psychiatric phenomena (e.g., allergies may heighten risk for these syndromes by triggering the immune system and cytokines; allergies may impair sleep through nasal obstruction and secondarily exacerbate psychiatric symptoms; and allergies may negatively affect cognitive functioning and contribute to psychiatric disturbance) as well as a possible shared genetic risk. The authors review and discuss these variables.