Data on Altitude Sickness Described by Researchers at Tri-Service General Hospital (Acute Mountain Sickness and the Risk of Subsequent Psychiatric Disorders-A Nationwide Cohort Study in Taiwan): Lung Diseases and Conditions – Altitude Sickness

Disease Prevention Daily

2023 MAR 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Disease Prevention Daily -- Investigators discuss new findings in altitude sickness. According to news reporting from Taipei, Taiwan, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “We aim to explore if there is a relationship between acute mountain sickness (AMS) and the risk of psychiatric disorders in Taiwan by using the National Health Insurance Research Database for to the rare studies on this topic.”

Funders for this research include Medical Affairs Bureau, The Ministry of Defense of Taiwan.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Tri-Service General Hospital: “We enrolled 127 patients with AMS, and 1270 controls matched for sex, age, monthly insured premiums, comorbidities, seasons for medical help, residences, urbanization level, levels of care, and index dates were chosen from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2015. There were 49 patients with AMS and 140 controls developed psychiatric disorders within the 16-year follow-up. The Fine-Gray model analyzed that the patients with AMS were prone to have a greater risk for the development of psychiatric disorders with an adjusted sub-distribution hazard ratio (sHRs) of 10.384 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.267-14.838, * * p* * < 0.001) for psychiatric disorders. The AMS group was associated with anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorder, sleep disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder/acute stress disorder, psychotic disorder, and substance-related disorder (SRD). The relationship between anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, SRD, and AMS still persisted even after we excluded the psychiatric disorders within the first five years after AMS.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “There was an association between AMS and the rising risk of psychiatric disorders in the 16 years of long-term follow-up research.”

For more information on this research see: Acute Mountain Sickness and the Risk of Subsequent Psychiatric Disorders-A Nationwide Cohort Study in Taiwan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2023,20(2868):2868. (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph). The publisher for International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is MDPI AG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20042868.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Ya-Hsuan Wang, Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital, School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei City 11490, Taiwan. Additional authors for this research include Wu-Chien Chien, Chi-Hsiang Chung, Yu-Ning Her, Chia-Yi Yao, Biing-Luen Lee, Fang-Ling Li, Fang-Jung Wan, Nian-Sheng Tzeng.