Effect of progressive muscle relaxation in adolescent female bronchial asthma patients: a randomized, double-blind, controlled study.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to examine the efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) on change in blood pressure, lung parameters and heart rate in female adolescent asthmatics. METHOD In a prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study, adolescent female asthmatics (n=31) were tested to find out how the systolic blood pressure (SBP), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1)), peak expiratory flow (PEF) and heart rate change after PMR. The control group (CG; n=30) received a placebo intervention. RESULTS A significant reduction in SBP and a significant increase in the FEV(1) and PEF were observed after PMR. The heart rate showed a significant increase in the coefficient of variation (CV), root-mean-square of successive differences (RMSSD) and at the high frequency (HF) range, in addition to a significant reduction at the low and middle frequency (LF and MF, respectively) ranges. CONCLUSION PMR appears to be effective in improvement of blood pressure, lung parameter and heart rate in adolescent female asthmatics.