Effect of Buteyko breathing exercise in newly diagnosed asthmatic patients

Introduction: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways and is on the increasing trend owing to air pollution and urbanization. The use of alternative ways of treatment that are as efficacious as the standard treatment is the need of the hour. This study was conducted to study the effects of Buteyko breathing exercise on the newly diagnosed asthmatic patients. Materials and Methods: Totally, 100 newly diagnosed asthmatic patients attending Tagore Medical college out-patient department were randomly allocated into the interventional and the control group for a period of 2 months. The former were taught Buteyko breathing exercise while the control group was on standard asthma treatment. The effects were assessed using a pretested close ended Asthma Control Questionnaire and Pulmonary Function Tests. The results were given in mean with a standard deviation. Chi-square test was done to compare the results between the two groups and P < 0.05 is taken as significant. The analysis was done by SPSS software version 13. Results: Among the 100 participants, majority of the participants were in the age group of 31-40 years. It was observed that there was an overall subjective improvement of asthma symptoms among the interventional group at the end of 2 months (which was statistically significant) when compared to the control group. Also, there was an improvement in the pulmonary function in terms of peak expiratory flow rate in both the groups. Conclusions: The results of this study support the effectiveness of Buteyko breathing exercise over the standard treatment in the newly diagnosed asthmatic patients.