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.

中文翻译：

---

呼吸疗法治疗焦虑：荟萃分析回顾和回归

 客观的

呼吸异常是焦虑症状的标志，可作为临床上有用的缓解焦虑症状的修饰剂。然而，黄金标准的焦虑治疗（例如认知行为干预）尽管具有理论实用性和临床可及性，但通常不能直接解决呼吸系统问题。这篇综述研究了呼吸干预措施、直接针对呼吸异常和过程的干预措施在治疗特质焦虑症状方面的临床有效性。

 方法

最终分析包括 40 项随机对照试验，其中包括至少一项特质焦虑测量、以呼吸为重点的干预组和非呼吸对照组（主动或不主动治疗）。检查了以呼吸为重点的干预措施的总体效果以及假设的调节剂的效果。

 结果

与对照组相比，呼吸系统干预对焦虑症状产生了显着更大的改善（中到大效果），与不活动的对照条件相比，观察到的效果更强。研究结果的显着异质性表明，干预设计、人群和对照比较的可变性可能会混淆对研究结果的解释。

 结论

有证据支持呼吸干预作为独立的焦虑治疗或作为其他干预措施的辅助手段的临床效用。讨论了研究结果的临床和研究意义以及对该领域正在进行的研究的建议。