title: Hyperventilation complaints in music performance anxiety among classical music students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite the importance of respiration and hyperventilation in anxiety disorders, research on breathing disturbances associated with hyperventilation is rare in the field of music performance anxiety (MPA, also known as stage fright). The only comparable study in this area reported a positive correlation between negative feelings of MPA and hyperventilation complaints during performance. The goals of this study were (a) to extend these previous findings to the period before performance, (b) to test whether a positive correlation also exists between hyperventilation complaints and the experience of stage fright as a problem, (c) to investigate instrument-specific symptom reporting, and (d) to confirm gender differences in negative feelings of MPA and hyperventilation complaints reported in other studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed 169 university students of classical music with a questionnaire comprising: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for negative feelings of MPA, the Nijmegen Questionnaire for hyperventilation complaints, and a single item for the experience of stage fright as a problem.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found a significant positive correlation between hyperventilation complaints and negative feelings of MPA before performance and a significant positive correlation between hyperventilation complaints and the experience of stage fright as a problem. Wind musicians/singers reported a significantly higher frequency of respiratory symptoms than other musicians. Furthermore, women scored significantly higher on hyperventilation complaints and negative feelings of MPA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results further the findings of previous reports by suggesting that breathing disturbances associated with hyperventilation may play a role in MPA prior to going on stage. Experimental studies are needed to confirm whether hyperventilation complaints associated with negative feelings of MPA manifest themselves at the physiological level.
authors.affiliation: Institut Universitaire Romand de Santé au Travail (Institute for Work and Health), University of Lausanne and University of Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland. regina.studer@hospvd.ch
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Studer
authors.forename: Brigitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Danuser
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arial
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gomez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006985:Hyperventilation / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires