Breathing sits at the meeting point of body and mind. It runs automatically, yet it responds instantly to fear, and it is one of the few bodily functions we can take over at will. So it is no surprise that hypnosis has been tried for breathing problems for well over a century.
The picture that has emerged is uneven: disappointing for asthma itself, and more encouraging for some related conditions.
The safety rule
Asthma can kill. Nothing in this article is a substitute for your inhalers or your asthma action plan.
- Take preventer medication as prescribed.
- Keep your reliever inhaler with you.
- In an asthma attack, use your reliever and follow your action plan. Call emergency services if it is not working.
- Never use hypnosis, relaxation or breathing exercises instead of a reliever during an attack.
- Never stop asthma medication because you feel better.
Asthma: what the evidence shows
Asthma involves inflamed, narrowed airways. It is a physical disease.
The research on hypnosis is weak. Reviews have concluded that:
- The studies are few, small and mostly old.
- A randomised controlled trial of hypnotherapy for asthma found no therapeutic effect.
- A systematic review of relaxation therapies for asthma found a lack of evidence for their efficacy.
- Some studies report that people feel better and use less medication, without clear improvement in measured lung function.
Earlier research suggested that any benefit was concentrated in highly hypnotizable people, and in those whose asthma was strongly affected by emotion.
In short, hypnosis has not been shown to treat asthma.
Where it may help
Hypnosis may still help with things that surround asthma:
- Anxiety about breathlessness. Fear tightens the chest and worsens the feeling of being unable to breathe.
- Panic during symptoms, which makes it harder to use an inhaler properly.
- Sleep.
- Confidence in managing the condition.
- Sticking to treatment.
These can improve quality of life even when lung function is unchanged.
Habit cough
This is where the results are more striking.
A habit cough is a persistent, often loud, barking cough that continues long after an infection has cleared. It typically disappears during sleep and when the child is distracted. No physical cause is found. It can last for months and keep a child out of school.
The American paediatric lung specialist Ran Anbar reported on 51 children and teenagers with habit cough who were taught self-hypnosis.
- 78 per cent were free of the cough after the first instruction session.
- A further 8 per cent were cough-free within a week, and 4 per cent within a month.
- The cough returned once or more in about a fifth of patients, and nearly all of them used self-hypnosis again to stop it.
This was a case series from one clinic, without a control group. But the speed of the response is notable, and behavioural approaches are now the recognised treatment for habit cough.
Other breathing problems
In reports from the same clinic, self-hypnosis was associated with improvement in most young patients treated for a range of problems, including:
- Vocal cord dysfunction, where the vocal cords close when they should open, mimicking asthma
- Hyperventilation and breathing-pattern problems
- Breathlessness and chest tightness linked to anxiety
- Habitual sighing
Of 81 patients taught self-hypnosis for such problems, three quarters returned for follow-up, and 95 per cent of those reported improvement or resolution. Again, these are uncontrolled observations.
These conditions are often mistaken for asthma and treated with inhalers that do not help. Correct diagnosis comes first.
How it is done
- Relaxation and slow, comfortable breathing
- Imagery of open airways: wide tubes, clear air flowing easily
- A favourite place, often with fresh, cool air
- For habit cough: imagining the tickle fading, a “switch” for the cough, sipping an imaginary soothing drink
- For vocal cord dysfunction: imagining the throat open and relaxed
- A cue to use when symptoms begin
Children usually learn this in one or two sessions.
A calming exercise
For anxiety-related breathlessness, once a doctor has ruled out anything else and you have used any prescribed inhaler:
- Sit upright and drop your shoulders.
- Breathe in gently through your nose.
- Breathe out slowly through pursed lips, as if blowing through a straw.
- Imagine your airways as wide, open tunnels.
- Tell yourself: “The air flows in and out easily.”
- Continue for two minutes.
See a doctor
- Any persistent cough, wheeze or breathlessness needs assessment before it is treated as habit or anxiety.
- Seek urgent help for severe breathlessness, blue lips, difficulty speaking, or an attack not relieved by a reliever inhaler.
The bottom line
Hypnosis has not been shown to treat asthma, and must never replace asthma medication. It may ease the fear around breathing, and for habit cough and some other breathing-pattern problems the early reports are encouraging.
Next in the series: Hypnosis for High Blood Pressure: Can Relaxing Lower the Numbers?
This article is for general information and is not medical advice.