Effectiveness of self-management programmes and relaxation training in the treatment of bronchial asthma: relationships with trait anxiety and emotional attack triggers

Abstract

Twenty-seven children with light to moderate asthma were allocated to three groups matched with respect to a number of subjects with (a) high trait anxiety and (b) emotionally triggered attacks (ET). The first group received an asthma self-management programme (SM) and the second the same programme including relaxation training (SM + R); the control group (CG) received only pharmacological treatment. Before and immediately after intervention, and at 6 and 12 month follow-ups, we evaluated a series of clinical and pulmonary function indicators of disease severity. Overall, patients receiving SM showed a significantly greater reduction in their subjective assessment of attack intensity and in the severity of the intervention measures employed. Inclusion of individual difference variables in the analysis also indicated that ET patients receiving SM + R showed significant decreases in attack duration, and improvements in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) with respect to ET patients in all other groups. Trait anxiety level did not affect response to either intervention.