ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: When a child develops asthma symptoms, several changes in his/her behavior, in his/her family and in his/her social environment begin. OBJECTIVE: To identify the most frequent personality traits and psychological disturbances in asthmatic children and adolescents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A transversal, observational and descriptive study was performed on 85 asthmatic children and adolescents ages from 5 to 18 years old that attended a questionnaire, and a graphic test on 77 of those children, which consisted on drawing two pictures. Such pictures were analyzed by a psychotherapist to determine the personality traits and the psychological disturbance present in these individuals. RESULTS: All the children answered positively at least one of the questions which detect data related to depression in the questionnaire, being the more frequent: easy anger (40%), insomnia (29%), sadness (15%), auto-aggression or suicide ideas (11%) and loss of appetite (6%). According to graphic test interpretation, 39% of children showed a depression disturbance, 29% adaptation disturbance with depression symptoms, and 12% an adaptation disturbance. In addition, we found that 2 children were victim of abuse and negligence into their families. CONCLUSION: The 100% of the evaluated asthmatic children and adolescents, showed data related to depression presence.
