Enhanced adaptive behavioural response in agoraphobic patients pretreated with breathing retraining.
Patients with clinically diagnosed agoraphobia to whom it had been demonstrated that a standard hyperventilation provocation could produce their feared symptoms were alternately allocated to two treatment groups: 7 patients were treated with two sessions of breathing retraining followed by 7 weekly sessions of real-life exposure to the feared situation, and 5 patients were treated with 9 weekly sessions of real-life exposure without breathing retraining. At discharge and at 1 month's follow-up the two groups of patients showed similar degrees of improvement in frequency of panic attacks and other psychophysiological scores. At 6 months' follow-up the patients treated with real-life exposure alone were beginning to show a fall-off in relearned adaptive behaviour (learning decrement), whereas those given breathing retraining showed further improvement. This suggests that patients pretreated with breathing retraining are less likely to need further treatment.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006985:Hyperventilation / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D012119:Respiration; D013997:Time Factors