The Psychosocial Stress in the Pathogenesis of Bronchial Asthma(<Special Issue>The Trend of Research and Treatment of Psychosomatic Diseases in the Field of Respiratory Medicine-The Hope of New Restoration of Psychosomatic Respiratory Medicine-)

Abstract

Allergic asthma is associated with exposure to both allergens and non-allergenic components of the environment. In particular, non-allergenic components, such as bacterial products, air pollution, and tobacco smoke can act as adjuvants to promote allergic sensitization to innocuous inhaled antigens. Epigenetics caused by environmental factors and psychosocial stress has been reported to modulate allergic immune responses. Although many studies have been performed so far, little is known about the mechanism by which how psychosocial stress enhances allergic inflammation in the airway. In this paper, we review several papers in terms of current mechanisms of asthma related to environmental factors and discuss how psychological stress affects the severity and prevalence of asthma.