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Dissociating breathlessness symptoms from mood in asthma
Olivia K Harrison1, Lucy Marlow2, Sarah L Finnegan3
1Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, and Nuffield Division of Anaesthetics, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Biological Psychology
|September 24, 2021
Summary
Asthma symptom severity may not align with medical tests due to altered bodily sensation perception (interoception). Negative mood in asthma patients is linked to poorer interoception and attention, potentially explaining symptom discordance.
Area of Science:
- Psychosomatic Medicine
- Respiratory Medicine
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Asthma symptom perception often mismatches objective medical findings, a phenomenon lacking clear explanation.
- Interoception, the sense of the body's internal state, is a potential factor influencing this symptom discordance.
- Mood and attention are hypothesized to modulate interoception and, consequently, symptom reporting in asthma.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interplay between interoception, mood, and attention in individuals with asthma compared to healthy controls.
- To identify potential subgroups within the asthma population based on these inter-relationships.
- To explore how mood and attention influence the perception of bodily sensations in asthma.
Main Methods:
- Utilized questionnaires, a breathing-related interoception task, and two attention tasks.
- Employed exploratory factor analysis for questionnaires and linear regression to analyze relationships between measures.
- Applied k-means clustering to define distinct asthma subgroups based on symptom and pathophysiology data.
Main Results:
- Identified two concordant asthma subgroups (symptoms aligned with pathophysiology, normal mood) and one discordant subgroup (moderate symptoms, minor pathophysiology, low mood).
- Found a significant correlation between negative mood, reduced interoceptive ability, and faster reaction times in attention tasks across all participants.
- Demonstrated that mood significantly influences the interpretation of bodily sensations, an effect potentially amplified in specific asthma subgroups.
Conclusions:
- Interoceptive ability and mood are interconnected, impacting how individuals interpret their bodily sensations.
- Specific subgroups of individuals with asthma may experience heightened effects of mood on interoception, contributing to symptom discordance.
- Understanding these psychosomatic links is crucial for a more holistic approach to asthma management and treatment.
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