Studies in Hay-Fever Patients (The Allergic Personality)

Abstract

Perhaps more than any other conditions, allergic diseases during recent years have been the subject of studies demonstrating the interplay of mind and body. In numerous papers on asthma, migraine and urticaria the psychological aspects of these disorders have been discussed. In these conditions the emotional origin of single attacks is generally admitted, but it is still a controversial subject whether, or to what extent, asthma, migraine and urticaria can be considered as part manifestations of a general psychopathological constitution. Hay-fever, since it is a purely seasonal disease, although of clean-cut allergic origin, has so far been excluded from such studies; and yet if in allergic diseases the biological over-reaction, the allergy, is in fact correlated in some way to the mental make-up of the patient, no other disease seems more appropriate than hay-fever as a crucial test of the importance of psychosomatic relationships in allergic disorders. Consequently, with the kind permission and support of Dr. Freeman, I set out to investigate the mental make-up of a number of hay-fever patients in the Inoculation Department of St. Mary's Hospital.