Buteyko
Trial Shows Drop in Asthma Medication Use
By
Rada Rouse
Article
reproduced by permission from Medical Observer (Australia),
26 July 2002.
Early results
from the world's largest trial of the Buteyko breathing method for
asthma management show that almost all participants used less reliever
and preventer medication after six months of therapy.
Jill McGowan,
a former GP practice nurse and university lecturer, is conducting
a self-funded, randomised controlled trial among 600 people aged
18 to 75 years with mild to severe asthma recruited from primary
care and hospital clinics in Glasgow, Scotland.
Ms McGowan
will tell the 2nd International Buteyko Asthma Conference in Melbourne
this weekend that trial participants receiving the instruction had
reduced symptoms, improved quality of life and participation in
sports activity at six months - that this was sustained at 12 months.
Those receiving
the instruction had increased participation in sports activity,
reduced symptoms and improved quality of life at six months.
Among the active
Buteyko group, almost all the participants (98%) reduced use of
reliever medication, 92% decreased their use of preventer medication,
and 96% used less oral preventer preparations. All people in this
group stopped using oral reliever preparations. The size of decrease
in medication use was uncertain, however.
No significant
changes were seen in the placebo group, which received conventional
asthma management by a practice nurse, or in the control group,
which sought help and advice as required.
In response
to the early results of the two-year trial, the British Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for Health has asked the National Institute
for Clinical Excellence, which issues therapeutic guidelines to
consider including the Buteyko method in future technology appraisals
programs for the UK.
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