Accuracy of interoception and withdrawal of attention in airway diseases: Bronchial asthma versus chronic obstructive bronchitis

The hypothesis that asthmatic patients draw their attention away from bodil y processes and show inaccurate interoception with regard to relevant airwa y obstructions was tested in this study. Additionally, we examined whether this postulated withdrawal of attention can also be generalized for the per ception of non-airway related symptoms as well as for private self-consciou sness. Accuracy of interoception was measured as the discrepancy between su bjective judgement of obstruction and objective obstruction as shown in spi rometric tests. Other variables were operationalized by self-reports. Ninet y-one patients in a rehabilitation hospital were tested: 30 asthmatic patie nts, 30 patients with chronic obstructive bronchitis (COB), and 31 control subjects without any airway disease. Asthmatic patients showed attention wi thdrawal only with regard to bronchial airways. However, they also indicate d an overestimation of airway obstruction. Surprisingly, deviant results we re also found for the COB patients including underestimation of obstruction s and lower self awareness. All results were interpreted from the perspecti ve of behavioral medicine.