School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jul 23;14(1):16893. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-64254-7.
High ventilation breathwork with retention (HVBR) has been growing in popularity over the past decade and might be beneficial for mental and physical health. However, little research has explored the potential therapeutic effects of brief, remotely delivered HVBR and the tolerability profile of this technique. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of a fully-automated HVBR protocol, along with its tolerability, when delivered remotely in a brief format. This study (NCT06064474) was the largest blinded randomised-controlled trial on HVBR to date in which 200 young, healthy adults balanced for gender were randomly allocated in blocks of 2 by remote software to 3 weeks of 20 min daily HVBR (fast breathing with long breath holds) or a placebo HVBR comparator (15 breaths/min with short breath holds). The trial was concealed as a 'fast breathwork' study wherein both intervention and comparator were masked, and only ~ 40% guessed their group assignment with no difference in accuracy between groups. Both groups reported analogous credibility and expectancy of benefit, subjective adherence, positive sentiment, along with short- and long-term tolerability. At post-intervention (primary timepoint) for stress level (primary outcome), we found no significant group × time interaction, F(1,180) = 1.98, p = 0.16, η = 0.01, d = 0.21), nor main effect of group, (F = 0.35, p = 0.55, η < 0.01) but we did find a significant main effect of time, (F = 13.0, p < 0.01, η = 0.07). There was a significant improvement in stress pre-post-intervention in both groups, however there was no significant difference in such improvement between groups. In addition to stress at follow-up, we found no significant group x time interactions for secondary trait outcomes of anxiety, depression, mental wellbeing, and sleep-related impairment. This was also the case for state positive and negative affect after the first session of breathwork and at post-intervention. Brief remote HVBR therefore may not be more efficacious at improving mental health than a well-designed active comparator in otherwise healthy, young adults.
高通气呼吸训练（HVBR）在过去十年中越来越受欢迎，可能对身心健康有益。然而，很少有研究探讨简短、远程提供的 HVBR 的潜在治疗效果以及该技术的耐受性特征。因此，我们研究了完全自动化的 HVBR 方案的效果及其在简短格式远程提供时的耐受性。这项研究（NCT06064474）是迄今为止 HVBR 方面最大的盲法随机对照试验，其中 200 名年轻健康的成年人按性别均衡分为两组，通过远程软件随机分配到 3 周的每日 HVBR（快速呼吸和长时间呼吸暂停）或安慰剂 HVBR 对照（15 次/分钟和短呼吸暂停）。该试验被伪装成一项“快速呼吸训练”研究，其中干预组和对照组都被掩盖，只有约 40%的人猜对了自己的分组，而且两组的准确率没有差异。两组都报告了类似的可信度和获益预期、主观依从性、积极情绪，以及短期和长期的耐受性。在干预后（主要时间点）评估压力水平（主要结果）时，我们发现组间×时间交互作用无统计学意义，F(1,180) = 1.98，p = 0.16，η = 0.01，d = 0.21），组间也无主要效应，（F = 0.35，p = 0.55，η < 0.01），但我们确实发现时间有显著的主要效应，（F = 13.0，p < 0.01，η = 0.07）。两组的压力都在干预前后有所改善，但两组之间的改善没有显著差异。除了随访时的压力，我们还发现，对于焦虑、抑郁、心理健康和睡眠相关障碍等次要特征结果，以及第一次呼吸训练和干预后即刻的状态正性和负性情绪，组间×时间交互作用均无统计学意义。
