Date of Award

2023

Degree Type

Selective Evidence-Based Medicine Review

Degree Name

Master of Science in Health Sciences - Physician Assistant

Department

Physician Assistant Studies

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not “does mindful breathing reduce negative symptoms in palliative care patients?”

Study Design: A systematic review of three non blinded randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English between 2011 and 2021.

Data Sources: All three RCTs were discovered using PubMed. The articles were published in peer-reviewed journals and selected based on relevance to the research question.

Outcome Measured: The change in negative symptoms after mindful breathing was measured differently in each study. In one study, patients rated their suffering 0-10 using a pictogram. In a second study, distress was self-reported using a thermometer rating 0-10. In the third study, negative symptoms were rated 0-10 using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS).

Results: The RCT by Beng et al. found a significant change in suffering for both the intervention group and supportive listening control group (p = 0.00), but the mindful breathing group had a higher mean change from baseline by 0.84. Look et al. showed mindful breathing caused a significant reduction in total symptom score compared to the control (p = 0.005), as measured on the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS). Lastly, Ng et al. demonstrated a significant decrease in distress with mindful breathing compared to the control (p

Conclusion: All three studies in this review demonstrated that mindful breathing significantly reduced negative symptoms in palliative care patients. Although the treatment effect was small, mindful breathing is an effective treatment to supplement palliative care delivery. Future studies are needed to investigate the duration of mindful breathing and long-term effects.

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