Physical diseases are often linked to mental disorders that enhance them. A new research found that arthritis and diseases of the digestive system are most common in people who have suffered from depression. The study also underlined that disorders from the anxiety spectrum are commonly associated with skin diseases.

The research was conducted by researchers at the University of Basel and Ruhr University Bochum, and was published in the journal Plos One.

Psychological Events Impact Physical Health In Teenagers

The way psychological events and the manner people perceive them impacting our health has never been scientifically proven, although previous studies have shown correlation between the two. Until this study, there was no clear causality between these types of affections.

Young people, who are still developing, are the most affected by these causality, as their psychological state of mind can trigger health issues, according to this research.

The research analyzed the temporal patterns and the relationship between physical diseases and the mental ones, looking at a representative data sample of 6,483 teenagers from the United States, within the age interval of 13 to 18.

As part of the research, the scientists observed that a series of physical diseases tend to take place more frequently in children and adolescents who have previously been affected by a series of mental disorders. Anxiety is more common when subjects suffered from a heart disease, and epileptic disorders can be linked to developing eating disorders.

Correlations Between Psychiatric Disorders and Physical Diseases

"For the first time, we have established that epilepsy is followed by an increased risk of eating disorders — a phenomenon, that had previously been described only in single case reports. This suggests that approaches to epilepsy treatment could also have potential in the context of eating disorders," noted Marion Tegethoff, the study's lead author.

The results of this study are all the more important as they offer insight on the anatomy of physical diseases, as well as on the repercussions of some psychological and psychiatric affections. The research could help in finding a new series of treatments that could address the underlying causes of these disorders, thus avoiding these causalities in future young people.

As part of the research, patients who had a skin condition called atopic dermatitis improved their physical condition after psychotherapy sessions, which suggests a correlation between the two types of manifestations. A significant part of the patients who experienced the skin disease had been suffering from anxiety, which was found to be a significant contributing factor to their physical condition.

Other underlying mechanisms that consisted of psychological disorders could have triggered skin diseases, such as skin health-relevant immune alterations, including slowed wound healing and augmented induction of inflammatory processes and immunoglobulin production.  

A previous study led by the same research team proved that chronic physical diseases and mental disorders are correlated, occurring systematically in adults as well as teenagers. The study also connected depression with indigestion, after 35.3 percent of the children and adolescents reported at least a mental disorder and a chronic physical disease.

"Future studies should identify risk factors as well as the biological and psychological mechanisms responsible for these associations, in order to develop interdisciplinary approaches," noted Tegethoff, who was also a lead author of that study.