Abstract
Breathlessness is an unpleasant sensation related to respiration and is induced by hypercapnia or hypoxia. However, breathlessness is affected by psychological changes, especially anxiety. In this study we investigated how trait anxiety affected breathlessness induced by repetitive breath-holds. Breathlessness increased linearly with breath-hold trials. The subjects in the group of high trait anxiety (group H), whose scores were more than 43.2, had higher breathlessness as compared to the group of low trait anxiety (group L). Tidal volume (VT) and VT/TI also increased linearly with breath-hold trials, but there was no difference between group H and group L. This study suggests that respiratory effort increases while repetitive breath-holds augment breathlessness. This research also suggests that breathlessness may increase in a subject who has high trait anxiety.
