When symptoms are poorly controlled, patients with bronchial asthma may show a symptom gap: a cognitive divergence between the true severity of symptoms and the severity evaluated by the patients themselves. The aim of this study was to determine which factors (emotional cognition of the self and others) are associated with this symptom gap.
Methods:
Forty-two patients with bronchial asthma, who were found with the Comprehensive Asthma Inventory (a bronchial asthma symptom questionnaire) to have psychosocial factors associated with a deep concern about the onset of asthma attacks, were studied by means of validated scales for alexithymia (the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20) and for empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index: IRI) and questions about how patients evaluate the severity of asthma.
Results:
Of the patients, 42.5% showed a cognitive divergence regarding asthma symptoms.The scores for “perspective taking” on the IRI were significantly higher in patients who felt symptoms were less severe than they actually than in patients who felt symptoms were more severe than they actually were. No association was found between alexithymia and the symptom gap.
Conclusions:
The results show that empathy, the ability to understand the emotions of others, is associated with a symptom gap in patients with bronchial asthma and that high scores for “perspective taking” on the IRI may indicate problems of treatment and symptom control in asthma.