EDITORIAL

Breathing therapies in asthma

Breathing therapies and bronchodilator use in asthma

A Bruton¹ and M Thomas²

¹ University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
² Department of General Practice, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr M Thomas
Cotswold Cottage, Oakridge, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL6 7NZ, UK; mikethomas@doctors.org.uk

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Breathing modification techniques may have a useful role in the management of asthma

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Keywords: asthma; complementary medicine; breathing techniques

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Treatments involving the manipulation of breathing are commonly used in routine practice by physiotherapists and other practitioners in a variety of clinical settings¹ yet, despite decades of use, there is no robust evidence base to confirm the effectiveness of these activities. Practical and logistic difficulties exist in the design and execution of the randomised controlled clinical trials required to provide the highest grade evidence for such treatments. While the design of studies investigating pharmacological agents is relatively straightforward, there are numerous potential pitfalls in trials investigating complex interventions such as breathing therapies which require significant interaction between patient and practitioner. There are obvious difficulties with devising suitable controls, blinding participants and researchers to any intervention received, and in ensuring standardisation. While it is frequently clinically acceptable to standardise medication dosage and timing, it is not normal to do so for breathing therapies—in which the response of . . . [Full text of this article]

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