Dyspnea is the impairing, cardinal symptom patients with asthma repeatedly experience over the course of the disease. However, its accurate perception is also crucial for timely initiation of treatment. Reduced perception of dyspnea is associated with negative treatment outcome, but the underlying brain mechanisms of perceived dyspnea in patients with asthma remain poorly understood. We examine...

Dyspnea is a general term used to characterize a range of different descriptors; it varies in intensity, and is influenced by a wide variety of factors such as cultural expectations and the patient's experiences. Healthy subjects can experience dyspnea in different situations, e.g. at high altitude, after breath-holding, during stressful situations that cause anxiety or panic, and more commonly...

Few therapies exist for the relief of dyspnea in restrictive lung disorders. Accumulating evidence suggests that nebulized opioids selective for the mu-receptor subtype may relieve dyspnea by modulating intrapulmonary opioid receptor activity. Our respective primary and secondary objectives were to test the hypothesis that nebulized fentanyl (a mu-opioid receptor agonist) relieves dyspnea durin...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Dyspnea is most commonly assessed by questioning patients about their subjective perception of shortness of breath during physical exertion. Although speech production is altered by pulmonary disease, it has not been included in current dyspnea assessment tools. A questionnaire was developed to address reports of dyspnea during (1) physical activity, (2) speech activity, and (3...

BACKGROUND Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common among the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias and has the worst prognosis, with a median survival of 3-5 years. The most common symptom in IPF is dyspnea, impacting on the patient's quality of life and life expectancy. Morphine in the treatment of dyspnea has been investigated but with conflicting results. This review aims to clar...

OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of bariatric surgery in patients with obesity on dyspnea and to analyze the relationships between improvement of dyspnea after bariatric surgery and changes in pulmonary function, especially Expiratory Reserve Volume (ERV) which is the lung volume abnormality most frequently associated with obesity. METHODS Forty-five patients (5 males/40 females, mean Body Ma...

In obstructive lung diseases such as asthma and COPD dyspnea is a common respiratory symptom with different characteristics given the different pathogenic mechanisms: in COPD initially it can occur during exertion but then it increases progressively along with the airflow obstruction, whereas in asthma it occurs episodically and is caused by transient bronchoconstriction. The language of dyspne...

Slow breathing is used to induce cardiovascular resonance, a state associated with health benefits, but it can also increase tidal volume and associated dyspnea (respiratory discomfort). Dyspnea may be decreased by induced positive affect. In this study, 71 subjects (36 men, M = 20 years) breathed at 6 breaths per min. In condition one, subjects paced their breathing by inhaling and exhaling as...

Dyspnea is a distressing symptom of terminal cancer patients. Lack of an appropriate assessment tool for dyspnea disturbs the establishment of proper management. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid measure which assesses the multidimensional nature of dyspnea among patient with advanced stage of cancer. The tool was administered by the principal investigator to the par...

The current study assessed how negative and positive stress is related to dyspnea perception. The participants were 25 young women with a medical diagnosis of severe asthma, and 15 matched controls. Stress was induced during repeated rollercoaster rides. Results showed that negative emotional stress and blood pressure peaked just before, and positive emotional stress and heart beat peaked immed...