Going by the findings of a new study, conducted by German researchers from Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, young children suffering from eczema – which is a non-contagious skin disease that leads to itchy skin rashes - face an increased risk of developing psychological problems in adult life.

The research, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggests that psychological abnormalities that children having eczema face as adults apparently result from side effects of eczema – like sleep disorders, and likelihood of developing hay fever and asthma.

For the study, the researchers observed nearly 6,000 children born between 1995 and 1998; and discovered that those who suffered from eczema during the first couple of years of their life started showing more psychological problems than their counterparts who do not suffer from the skin disease, by the time they are 10 years old.

Commenting on the findings, lead researchers Dr Joachim Heinrich elaborated that while eczema “can precede and lead to behavioural and psychological problems in children;” it is chiefly the “secondary symptoms” of the disease that have a “long-term effect on the emotions of the affected children.”

As such, the research underlines the need for recording eczema as a ‘potential risk factor for adult-life psychological problems’ in the medical records of young children, even though the actual disease subsides during the course of childhood.