Severe asthma and adherence to peak flow monitoring: longitudinal assessment of psychological aspects.

Background: Adherence in severe asthma is a difficult health problem. Although psychosocial factors may be responsible for non-adherence, few longitudinal studies have investigated their link with adherence, with most studies having focused on pharmacology.

Methods: Sixty patients with severe asthma were recruited.

Interference of psychological factors in difficult-to-control asthma.

Background: Most patients with asthma can be controlled with suitable medication, but 5-10% of them remain difficult to control despite optimal management.

Objective: We investigated whether patients with difficult-to-control asthma (DCA) or controlled asthma (CA) differ with respect to psychological factors, such as general control beliefs on life events.

Methods: DCA was defined as an absence of control despite optimal management.

The use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Southern European countries.

This paper reports a selection of completed or ongoing studies that have evaluated or applied the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in five countries of Southern Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, and France. In Italy, the SDQ has been used to study its concurrent validity with other norm-based instruments (Child Behavior Checklist-CBCL and Disruptive Behavior Disorder Rating Scale-DBDRS), to assess the efficacy of a behavioural school training, and as part of an epidemiological study. In Spain, the SDQ was used to analyse the association between respiratory and other behavioural problems.