The clinical utility of behavior therapy as an adjunctive treatment for asthma

A behavior therapy, Systematic Desensitization by Reciprocal Inhibition (SDRI), was used to reduce the anxiety 19 children reported experiencing before and during asthmatic symptoms. Seven control subjects received no behavioral treatment. Complete records were kept of all medications, treatments, and hospitalizations for asthma, twice daily one-second forced expiratory flow rates (FEV 1 ) and symptom reports. These data were collected before, during, and after SDRI treatment and at 5-mo follow-up. Posttreatment results showed differences between controls and SDRI-treated children only on the FEV 1 measures. In the face of comparably reduced steroids, treated patients maintained their pretreatment FEV 1 levels while controls' FEV 1 s declined slightly. At follow-up, the treated subjects were more like the controls but still maintained some stability in FEV 1 in the face of reduced maintenance medications. On the average the effect was small and of little clinical significance. However, a few patients appeared to show a clinically useful response to SDRI.