Breathing Characteristics and Symptoms of Psychological Distress: An Exploratory Study

Respiratory therapy for the treatment of anxiety: Meta-analytic review and regression

OBJECTIVE

Respiratory abnormalities are a hallmark of anxiety symptomatology and may serve as clinically useful modifiers for alleviating anxiety symptoms. However, gold-standard anxiety treatments (e.g., cognitive-behavioral interventions) often do not directly address respiratory components despite their theoretical utility and clinical accessibility. This review examined the clinical effectiveness of respiratory interventions, interventions that directly target respiration abnormalities and processes, in treating trait anxiety symptoms.

METHODS

The final analysis included 40 randomized controlled trials including at least one measure of trait anxiety, a respiratory-focused intervention group, and a non-respiratory control-group (active or inactive treatment). Overall effects of respiratory focused interventions were examined, as well as the effect of hypothesized moderators.

RESULTS

Respiratory component interventions yielded significantly greater improvements (moderate to large effect) in anxiety symptoms than controls, with the stronger effects observed in comparison to inactive, rather than active, control conditions. Significant heterogeneity in findings suggests that variability in intervention design, population, and control comparison may obfuscate interpretation of findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Evidence supports the clinical utility of respiratory interventions as either an independent anxiety treatment, or as an adjunct to other interventions. Clinical and research implications of findings along with recommendations for ongoing investigations in this domain are discussed.

Detection of respiratory rate using a classifier of waves in the signal from a FBG-based vital signs sensor

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Monitoring of changes in respiratory rate provides information on a patient's psychophysical state. This paper presents a respiratory rate detection method based on analysis of signals from a fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensor.

METHODS

The detection method is based on a system of software blocks that identify notches in the signal waveforms, determine their parameters, and then transmit them to the classifier, which decides which of them are the characteristic waves of the respiratory cycle. The classifier of respiratory waves was developed by means of machine learning methods and using the training data obtained from 10 volunteers (7 males, 3 females, age: 41.1 ± 8.28 years, weight: 73.6 ± 15.25 kg, height 173.5 ± 6.43 cm), who were lying in the tube of a 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner.

RESULTS

In the verification study, aimed at assessing the performance of the method for detecting respiratory rate, 15 subjects (14 males, 1 female, age: 20.2 ± 3.00 years, weight: 75.47 ± 10.58 kg, height 179.13 ± 6.27 cm) were involved. Clinically satisfactory results of respiratory rate detection were obtained: root mean square error of 1.48 rpm and the limits of agreement at -2.73 rpm and 3.04 rpm. The results indicate a high efficiency of the classifier, i.e., sensitivity: 96.50 ± 3.44%, precision: 95.42 ± 2.84%, and accuracy: 92.99 ± 3.37%.

CONCLUSION

The all-dielectric sensor acquires the respiration curve and the proposed scheme of computation enables for extracting respiratory rate automatically and continuously. This scheme based on machine learning procedures will be integrated into a system to facilitate non-invasive continuous monitoring of MRI patients.

A study of the relationship between the level of anxiety declared by MRI patients in the STAI questionnaire and their respiratory rate acquired by a fibre-optic sensor system

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patients often experience anxiety-related respiratory disorders, including hyperventilation, but their respiratory indicators are not routinely monitored during scanning. Free from metal parts and immune to electromagnetic radiation, fibre-optic sensors have the potential to better control the patient’s condition by providing continuous non-invasive monitoring of the respiratory rate (RR). The study was purposed to assess the relationship between anxiety in MRI patients and their RR acquired by a fibre-optic sensor system. Forty-four subjects were involved in the study. The mean RR values recorded for 2 minutes immediately after the beginning and immediately before the end of the scanning were assessed relative to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) X-1 scores obtained immediately before and immediately after the scanning, respectively. A growth mixture model analysis was performed to statistically differentiate two groups of subjects according to the trends in repeated measures of RR. A significant lowering of the anxiety state was observed in the group characterised by a decrease in RR, whereas essentially no change in anxiety level was observed in the group with a stable RR. The t-test showed significant differences in changes in anxiety between these groups (t₍₃₉₎ = −2.349, p = 0.012, Cohen’s d = 2.13).

Use of Portable Digital Devices to Analyze Autonomic Stress Response in Psychology Objective Structured Clinical Examination

The aim of the present study was to explore changes in the autonomic stress response of Psychology students in a Psychology Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and their relationship with OSCE performance. Variables of autonomic modulation by the analysis of heart rate variability in temporal, frequency and non-linear domains, subjective perception of distress strait and academic performance were measured before and after the two different evaluations that composed the OSCE. A psychology objective structured clinical examination composed by two different evaluation scenarios produced a large anxiety anticipatory response, a habituation response in the first of the evaluation scenarios and a in the entire evaluation, and a no habituation response in the second evaluation scenario. Autonomic modulation parameters do not correlate with academic performance of students.