Diaphragmatic respiration : psychophysiological and subjective effects in an anxious population

Cooze, Kim W. Keinath (1986) Diaphragmatic respiration : psychophysiological and subjective effects in an anxious population. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The present study was suggested by evidence in the psychological literature relating the presence of anxiety to rapid, shallow respiration. A three session breathing therapy program was compared to an attention control program on a number of self-report and psychophysiological variables. The research design was a pretest-posttest control group design. Subjects consisted of 18 self-referred, highly anxious adults, matched for sex and age, and randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. Both groups met for three, hour-long, small group (n=3) sessions. The breathing therapy program consisted of teaching slow, abdominal respiration as a relaxation technique and coping device. The attention control condition consisted of group discussion and self-relaxation. All subjects underwent two laboratory sessions, four weeks apart, during which respiration, cardiac, and skin conductance measures were obtained. Both tonic physiological activity over three periods (baseline, anticipation, and recovery), and specific responses to a stressor (loud noise) were assessed. Analyses were undertaken to determine between group differences on all measures. Repeated measures analyses of variance revealed breathing therapy to be significantly more effective than the attention control program in decreasing; (a) respiration rate, and (b) two self-report measures of anxiety. Limitations, implications, and contributions of this study are discussed.

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