OBJECTIVE: To investigate the psychological statuses of Chinese adults with moderate-to-severe persistent allergic rhinitis, and evaluate the effects of nasal symptoms on their psychological statuseses. METHOD: The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) or self-reporting Inventory was employed to analyze the psychological statuses of 539 adults with moderate-to-severe persistent allergic rhinitis. RESULT: The SCL-90 scores of the adults with moderate-to-severe persistent allergic rhinitis were statistically higher than those of non-allergic adults in terms of somatization, depression, anxiety and hostility. No statistical discrepancies existed in gender or age. The course of disease contributed to somatization and compulsion. The effects of nasal symptoms included two aspects: nasal obstruction had a conspicuous impact on somatization, compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety and psychosis, while nasal itching contributed to somatization, depression and anxiety. CONCLUSION The psychological statuses of adults with moderate-to-severe persistent allergic rhinitis is evidently worse than that of non-allergic adults. Symptoms such as nasal obstruction and itching had an obvious impact on outpatients' psychological statuses.
Adult ; Humans ; Nasal Obstruction ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial ; diagnosis ; psychology