This site is intended for health professionals only


CBT ‘helps improve asthma anxiety’

Cognitive-behavioural therapy has a ‘modest' effect on reducing the level of anxiety in asthma patients, conclude UK researchers.

The Department of Health-funded trial randomised patients with a clinical diagnosis of asthma to receive either cognitive-behavioural therapy with education, or standard medical care.

Participants completed a questionnaire at baseline that measured asthma-specific fear, as well as secondary outcomes in health status, symptoms of depression and asthma-specific health-related quality of life. Measures were recorded immediately after treatment, and at six-month follow up.

Those randomised to the CBT group had a significant reduction in asthma-specific fear scores at the end of treatment compared with the standard care group, with a difference of -1.20. This increased to -3.34 six months after the intervention, compared with the standard care group.

Professor Glenys Parry, study lead and professor of applied psychological therapies at the University of Sheffield, said: ‘This study supports the short term and longer term efficacy of a CBT intervention in reducing panic fear in asthma, though the clinical significance of the effect was modest.'

Respiratory Medicine 2012, online 8 March

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954611112000741

Pulse Writing Competition 2024

Fancy yourself as the next Pulse blogger? Enter our writing competition now!

Pulse Writing Competition 2024

          

Visit Pulse Reference for details on 140 symptoms, including easily searchable symptoms and categories, offering you a free platform to check symptoms and receive potential diagnoses during consultations.

Pulse Writing Competition 2024

Fancy yourself as the next Pulse blogger? Enter our writing competition now!

Pulse Writing Competition 2024