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EFFECTS OF EMOTION AND COUGH ON AIRWAYS OBSTRUCTION IN ASTHMA
Author(s) -
Clarke Paul S.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1970.tb78038.x
Subject(s) - asthma , medicine , small airways
Under hypnosis the effects of suggesting fear, anger, cough and an asthmatic attack, alone or in combination, have been studied in three asthmatic patients, using a spirometric method of assessment of airways obstruction. A significant decrease in forced expiratory volume at one second was observed with the suggestion of asthma alone, and more particularly on the combined suggestions of asthma, fear, anger and cough. No statistically significant decrease in ventilatory capacity occurred on coughing by itself, or the suggestion of fear and anger. On the average, these effects were reversed by suggestions of relaxation, but the scatter of post‐experimental measurements was wide. The experiments were not designed to study the relationship between chronic emotional tension and the initial onset of asthma, neither were they an assessment of the value of hypnosis in the treatment of asthma.