title: Pregnant women with bronchial asthma benefit from progressive muscle relaxation: a randomized, prospective, controlled trial.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine, Inntalklinik, Simbach/Inn, Germany. m.nickel@inntalklinik.de
authors.forename: Cerstin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nickel
authors.forename: Claas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lahmann
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muehlbacher
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pedrosa Gil
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Buschmann
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tritt
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kettler
authors.forename: Egon
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bachler
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Egger
authors.forename: Javaid
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Anvar
authors.forename: Rainhold
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fartacek
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Loew
authors.forename: Wolfhardt
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rother
authors.forename: Marius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nickel
mesh_terms: 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