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Home-based deep breathing for depression in patients with coronary heart disease: a randomised controlled trial - Chung LJ, Tsai PS, Liu BY, Chou KR, Lin WH, Shyu YK, Wang MY; Graduate Institute of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.

OBJECTIVES:  The primary aim of this study was to examine the effect of a home-based deep-breathing training programme on depressive symptoms as compared with a control condition (i.e., weekly telephone support) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD).

DESIGN:  This efficacy trial used a randomised controlled, parallel group design.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS:  A total of 62 CHD patients with a Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) >10 were randomised to receive either home-based deep-breathing training (experimental group, n=28) or weekly telephone support (control group, n=34). Both participants and data assessors were blinded to the study hypothesis. The primary outcome measure was the change in the self-reported depressive symptom severity, measured by the BDI-II. The secondary outcome was the change in the Patient Health Questionnaure-9 (PHQ-9)-assessed depressive symptom severity. Depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and post-test in both groups. For the experimental group, depressive symptoms were also assessed at the end of the first 2 weeks of training.

RESULTS:  The post-test BDI-II and PHQ-9 were significantly lower in the experimental group than in the control group … Examining the changes in BDI-II and PHQ-9 within the experimental group by the repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that both measures of depressive symptoms decreased significantly over time….. The percentage of participants with a BDI-II >or=17 decreased over time from 28.6% at baseline, and 17.9% during treatment, to 10.7% post-test.

CONCLUSIONS:  Home-based deep-breathing training is effective in reducing depressive symptoms as compared with telephone support in patients with CHD.