NCT06575920

Breathing Therapy for Patients in General Practice

Breathing Therapy for Patients With Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms and Dysfunctional Breathing: A Pilot and Feasibility Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 15 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Agder · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) capture conditions characterized by symptoms without corresponding objective findings, such as asthenia, low back pain, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, or chronic fatigue syndrome. In order to establish the grounds for a RCT. this pilot study aims to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of a 5-week breathing retraining programme on patients who meet the criteria for MUPS.

Detailed description

Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are symptoms without an identifiable organic cause that lead to functional impairment. MUPS is highly prevalent in general practice consultations. This pilot study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of a 5-week breathing retraining program for patients meeting the criteria for MUPS. The study used a quantitative observational design with pre- and post-intervention measurements. Fifteen participants with MUPS and dysfunctional breathing (assessed by the Nijmegen Questionnaire) were recruited from two general practitioner offices. The intervention consisted of 5 weekly sessions including education on breathing physiology and weekly breathing exercises focused on nasal breathing and resonance breathing techniques. One week post intervention, improvements were observed in dysfunctional breathing scores, lower symptom severity, higher general well-being, and reduced musculoskeletal pain complaints. At 3 months post-intervention, sustained improvements were seen in dysfunctional breathing, general well-being, musculoskeletal pain, and additionally lower pseudoneurological, gastrointestinal, and allergy complaints, as well as lower overall symptom burden and improved end-tidal CO2 levels. The study concluded that the 5-week breathing program showed promising results for improving multiple patient-reported outcomes in MUPS. Recruitment, adherence, and acceptability of the program were satisfactory. A randomized controlled trial is recommended to further evaluate the efficacy of this breathing intervention for MUPS patients.

Conditions

• Mind-Body Therapies

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Breathing excercizes	The intervention comprised six sessions. The first week involved obtaining informed consent, taking measurements and providing a brief introduction to breath and coherent breathing exercises. This was followed by four weekly sessions, each consisting of 90 minutes combining lectures and breathing exercises. At the final session, measurements and feasibility data were collected.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-10-11
• Primary completion: 2023-11-15
• Completion: 2024-02-14
• First posted: 2024-08-28
• Last updated: 2025-04-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Norway