Facebook: a new trigger for asthma?

摘要

Psychological stress is a recognised cause of asthma attacks. In depressed asthmatic individuals, parasympa-thetic or sympathetic dysregulation, with a vagal prevalence, has been noted as a consequence of a stress-inducing situation. Facebook is a social networking website launched in February, 2004 It had more than 500 million active users in July, 2010, and is in some ways replacing real relationships, especially among adolescents and young adults. We present the case of an 18-year-old man for whom Facebook use seemed to trigger asthma exacerbations. Asthma symptoms had been under control with inhaled corticosteroids (fluticasone 250 mg twice daily) and montelukast 10 mg once a day, which the patient took all year round except for the summer months, when exposure to house dust mite, to which he was sensitised, is usually low in Italy. However, symptoms had worsened in the months preceding presentation to us, and he had had to take relief medications several times, including in summer.