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• Posted October 24, 2024

More Kids With Food Allergies Are Needing Psychological Care

Anxiety is driving more children with potentially dangerous food allergies to seek out psychological care, a new study finds.

Focusing on one Ohio hospital, the researchers found a more than 50% jump in psychology referrals for kids with food allergies between 2018 and 2023.

“Our center has devoted significant resources to address the psychosocial support needed by many families who have children with food allergies,” said study lead author Dr. Andriana La Mantia, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

“Our goal in this study was to characterize use of these services for food allergy-related anxiety," La Mantia said in a news release from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

Her team presented its findings Thursday at the ACAAI annual meeting in Boston.

Food allergies can bring the specter of analphylaxis: A sudden, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction to even small amounts of the food allergen. Anxiety around preventing these incidents and trauma resulting from anaphylactic episodes can harm a child's mental health.

“Food allergy patients, particularly children, often suffer from anxiety related to potential accidental ingestion and anaphylaxis,” said study co-author Dr. David Stukus, director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

In the new study, the Columbus team reviewed the cases of 250 kids with food allergies, who averaged 9.5 years of age.

Many were allergic to more than one food; the average number of food allergens was two per patient.

More than half (53%) had already had at least one episode of anaphylaxis, the researchers found, and more than two-thirds (69%) said they suffered anxiety linked to their allergy.

About 1 in every 10 of the children (12%) said they had so much allergy-linked anxiety that it caused real declines in their quality of life.

Of those who opted for professional psychological help, 60% of those referred completed at least one appointment and the average patient got more than five appointments over the following year, the study found.

All of this is an important advance in the treatment of children with dangerous allergies, Stukus said.

“Expanding psychological services for these patients is an important part of how we try to support families to live normal lives while balancing food allergy management," he added.

Because these findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Find out more about food allergies at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

SOURCE: American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, news release, Oct. 24, 2024