Connecting The Link

To gain a better understanding of the correlation, the team examined a portion of the U.S. population who were diagnosed with either anxiety or depression and compared those findings to those who also developed chronic sinusitis. They discovered a bidirectional relationship—patients who were diagnosed with chronic sinusitis were at an increased risk of developing anxiety or depression. “It’s been established that there is an impairment in their overall quality of life,” said Ahmed. “However, we wanted to examine further to learn what happens if they have mental health issues.” Ahmed added, “Very little has ever been published in this space. What we’ve found is that once patients have been diagnosed with anxiety or diagnosed with depression, they have a two- or three-fold increased risk of development of chronic sinusitis. What's the potential mechanism? We don't know. However, we think this potential mechanism is related to perhaps an altered immune system or increased inflammation, which has been associated with mental health issues.” “The idea for this research is to raise the awareness of these conditions to primary care physicians and clinicians,” said Ahmed.