Excessive breathlessness through emotional imagery in asthma

Breathlessness and negative emotions during asthma attacks interact in comp lex patterns. This study tested the influence of emotional imagery on breat hlessness during voluntary breath holding. Adolescents with and without ast hma (n = 36 + 36) were assigned to positive imagery, negative imagery, or n o imagery. There were four trials with close to thresholds for breath holdi ng combined with imagery. Breathlessness and quality of imagery were measur ed by the end of breath holding. Additional measures were lung function and anxiety. The results showed that positive and negative imagery were only i nfluencing breathlessness in participants with asthma. Although threshold d uration for the groups were not significantly different, participants with asthma reported more breathlessness. The intensity of imagery enhanced brea thlessness but diminished the accuracy of symptom perception. Positive imag ery diminished breathlessness in participants with asthma. but also the dif ference in breathlessness between 75% and 95% of threshold duration. Breath lessness did not correlate with lung function, anxiety or other variables. It was concluded that emotional imagery during asthma attacks distracts fro m accurate introspection or enhances breathlessness, irrespective of anxiet y. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.