In Correspondence in this week's edition of The Lancet, five Italian Doctors report the case of a young man who appears to have had various asthma attacks brought on by logging into Facebook.
The 18-year-old man was depressed because his girlfriend had broken up with him. She also deleted him from Facebook, while "friending" many new young men. With a new nickname on Facebook, the young man succeeded in becoming her friend once again and finally in seeing her picture on her Facebook profile. The sight of this seemed to induce shortness of breath, which happened repeatedly on the patient accessing her profile. The five doctors, represented by Dr Gennaro D'Amato (High Speciality Hospital A Cardarelli, Naples, Italy) say: "The (man's) mother was advised to ask him to measure the peak expiratory flow before and after internet login and, indeed, "post-Facebook" values were reduced, with a variability of more than 20%. In collaboration with a psychiatrist, the patient resigned not to login to Facebook any longer and the asthma attacks stopped."
The doctors discuss that hyperventilation due to seeing his girlfriend's profile triggered these asthma attacks, and say that other possible environmental and infectious factors were excluded with a thorough history and physical examination. The doctors conclude: "This case indicates that Facebook, and social networks in general, could be a new source of psychological stress, representing a triggering factor for exacerbations in depressed asthmatic individuals. Considering the high prevalence of asthma, especially among young people, we suggest that this type of trigger be considered in the assessment of asthma exacerbations."
For full Correspondence, see: http://press.thelancet.com/facebook.pdf
Dr Gennaro D'Amato, High Speciality Hospital A Cardarelli, Naples, Italy (currently in Brazil). T +39 3355915589 E) gdamatomail@gmail.com
Other Facebook letter authors:
Gennaro Liccardi : + 39 338 1232749 - gennaro.liccardi@tin.it
Lorenzo Cecchi : +39 329 2366778 - lorenzo.cecchi@unifi.it
Maria D'Amato : +39 335 6697377 - marielladam@hotmail.com
Dr Ferdinando Pellegrino E) info@ferdinandopellegrino.com
For full Correspondence, see: http://press.thelancet.com/facebook.pdf
Journal
The Lancet