ON THE LANGUAGE OF BREATHLESSNESS

The aim of this study was to obtain and assess the range of expression s used by breathless patients to describe their subjective experience. At interview, 80 patients with respiratory, oncology or cardiac diagn oses provided 63 descriptions of breathlessness. These were sorted acc ording to similarity of meaning by expert health professionals and jud ged for frequency and severity. Results derived from a series of multi variate analyses on the descriptions and their weightings confirmed 4 classes of breathlessness containing 14 important groups. Most importa nt were the 8 main physical sensations of breathlessness. A second aff ective and evaluative class contained 3 groups of descriptors. Two min or classes showed low energy in the third, and a fourth with two disti nct qualities of hyperventilation and speechlessness. The results prov ide a foundation for the development of a psychometric instrument whic h could be used to assess breathlessness in the clinic.