Breathing retraining for dysfunctional breathing in asthma: a randomised controlled trial

Area of Science:

• Respiratory Medicine
• Physiotherapy
• Pulmonology

Background:

• Functional breathing disorders can exacerbate asthma and diminish patient quality of life.
• Identifying and treating these disorders is crucial for comprehensive asthma management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of physiotherapy-led breathing retraining for asthma patients experiencing symptoms of dysfunctional breathing.
• To compare breathing retraining against standard asthma nurse education.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 33 adult asthma patients (aged 17-65) with high Nijmegen questionnaire scores.
• Intervention group received brief physiotherapy breathing retraining; control group received asthma nurse education.
• Primary outcomes included asthma-specific health status (Asthma Quality of Life questionnaire) and Nijmegen questionnaire scores.

Main Results:

• Breathing retraining showed statistically significant improvements in asthma quality of life at 1 month across overall, symptoms, activities, and environment domains compared to the control group.
• Improvements in the activities domain remained significant at 6 months, with positive trends in other domains.
• A strong correlation was observed between improved quality of life and reduced dysfunctional breathing symptoms.

Conclusions:

• A short physiotherapy breathing retraining program offers clinically relevant quality of life improvements for over half of asthma patients with dysfunctional breathing symptoms.
• The positive effects of this intervention are sustained in a significant portion of patients at the 6-month follow-up.