Breathing REtraining for people with AsTHma and breathing pattern disorder
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Funded by .
Collaboration with Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation trust, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, University of Manchester and University of Salford.
Background: Asthma is a condition which results in breathlessness because the tubes to the lungs become narrowed and swollen. Current NHS guidelines for asthma recommend the use of drugs which are designed to open-up narrowed airways. However, research has shown that 1/3 of people with asthma may experience breathlessness because of the way they use the muscles which control breathing. If this is the case, then it is important to provide breathing retraining to people with asthma who experience breathlessness, despite taking asthma medication.
There is some scientific evidence that breathing exercises can reduce breathlessness in people with asthma. However, current exercises only reduce breathlessness by a small amount. We suggest that this is because these treatments do not teach people to change postural muscle patterns which can make breathing more difficult and because patients don’t always understand how to improve their breathing.
We have developed a new physiotherapy treatment for joint pain which teaches patients to reduce tension in postural muscles. We have also developed computer software which uses small cameras to track body movements and uses this information to show breathing patterns on a videogame character as a patient breathes.
Aim(s) of the research: We will create a version of our treatment, called “Cognitive Muscular Therapy (CMT)”, for people with asthma. This treatment will include software to show a patient their breathing pattern on a computer screen as they breath. Once developed, we will test the treatment on 16 participants.
Design and methods: We will involve patients and physiotherapists in a co-design process to map out a first version of CMT for asthma. We will then deliver this treatment to ten patients and gather opinions on how it could be improved. Once we have used this input to finalise the treatment, a physiotherapist will deliver it to 16 patients with asthma who experience breathlessness, despite taking medication. We will collect questionnaire data on breathlessness, asthma control, quality-of-life, and collect laboratory measures of breathing function. We will also interview patients to understand their experiences of the treatment.
Patient and public involvement: We have already worked with patients/physiotherapists to develop CMT. In this project, we will seek input from PPI representatives on different aspects of research design and ask the PPI group to help us specify improvements to the treatment at each stage of development.
Dissemination: We will publish our findings in scientific journals. If this study supports the idea that we can help people with asthma to manage breathlessness, we will apply for funding to carry out a larger trial to understand how this new treatment compares to existing physiotherapy for breathlessness. In the long-term, if our intervention proves effective, it could improve quality of life for people with asthma.
Total award value ?52,942.00