Pregnant women with bronchial asthma benefit from progressive muscle relaxation: a randomized, prospective, controlled trial.
BACKGROUND
Asthma is a serious medical problem in pregnancy and is often associated with stress, anger and poor quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on change in blood pressure, lung parameters, heart rate, anger and health-related quality of life in pregnant women with bronchial asthma.


METHODS
We treated a sample of 64 pregnant women with bronchial asthma from the local population in an 8-week randomized, prospective, controlled trial. Thirty-two were selected for PMR, and 32 received a placebo intervention. The systolic blood pressure, forced expiratory volume in the first second, peak expiratory flow and heart rate were tested, and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory and Health Survey (SF-36) were employed.


RESULTS
According to the intend-to-treat principle, a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure and a significant increase in both forced expiratory volume in the first second and peak expiratory flow were observed after PMR. The heart rate showed a significant increase in the coefficient of variation, root mean square of successive differences and high frequency ranges, in addition to a significant reduction in low and middle frequency ranges. A significant reduction on three of five State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory scales, and a significant increase on seven of eight SF-36 scales were observed.


CONCLUSIONS
PMR appears to be an effective method to improve blood pressure, lung parameters and heart rate, and to decrease anger levels, thus enhancing health-related quality of life in pregnant women with bronchial asthma.
Nickel
Cerstin
C
Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine, Inntalklinik, Simbach/Inn, Germany. m.nickel@inntalklinik.de
Lahmann
Claas
C
Muehlbacher
Moritz
M
Pedrosa Gil
Francisco
F
Kaplan
Patrick
P
Buschmann
Wiebke
W
Tritt
Karin
K
Kettler
Christian
C
Bachler
Egon
E
Egger
Christian
C
Anvar
Javaid
J
Fartacek
Rainhold
R
Loew
Thomas
T
Rother
Wolfhardt
W
Nickel
Marius
M
D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009126:Muscle Relaxation / Q000502:physiology*; D010366:Peak Expiratory Flow Rate / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology