[The patient's representation of asthma. Preliminary results of a survey]

There is often a discrepancy between doctors' and patients' points of view on asthma. However, few studies have been devoted to the patients' representation of asthma. In this study 27 subjects, with moderate asthma, had to choose from a list of 35 groups of words and expressions, those which look to them to best evoke asthma. The results of this descriptive study show that "allergy" is the most frequently chosen term associated by patients with "suffocate", "attack", "heredity", and "psychic". Asthmatic patients minimise disease severity and refuse to be categorised as ill; they reject terms stigmatising asthmatic subject and the dangerousness of their disease. However, they recognise that asthma has psychological repercussions and prefer self-care. They consider drugs as dangerous and are afraid of their addiction and toxicity. These results have implications on information and education of asthmatic patients. To identify, for each patient, what is his/her representation of his/her disease would be very useful to provide patients with an adapted and personalized help for the management of his/her disease.