International experts focus on helping people cope with breathlessness

A GROUP of international experts have come up with a new clinical syndrome to help people struggling with breathlessness.

The term, the group led by Prof Miriam Johnson at the University of Hull, agreed is chronic breathlessness syndrome, for people who are left disabled by breathlessness despite being treated for an underlying medical condition.

Prof Johnson said: “Traditionally the management of patients with lung, heart and neuro-muscular diseases has focused only on the underlying disease – for example, the emphysema – without routinely looking at the impact that being out of breath over months and years has on patients’ everyday lives, or how that can be helped.

“By recognising this syndrome, we hope to enable patients to share their concerns about their ongoing breathlessness with doctors and nurses and for clinicians to ask patients routinely.

“Better recognition of the problem will help people access treatments for the breathlessness itself, not just the disease. We hope this will help people regain some control and quality of life.”

Prof Johnson said the next step was ensuring all doctors and nurses, whether in hospitals or GP surgeries, are aware of treatments for breathlessness.

A basic assessment could result in a patient managing their breathlessness more effectively and change the threshold at which being out of breath leads to them giving up the things they enjoy doing – like doing the gardening or playing with grandchildren.

Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Professor Julie Jomeen added: “Professor Johnson’s work to classify and raise awareness of chronic breathlessness will have significant benefits in the treatment and wellbeing of patients.

“Recognition for this clinical syndrome will enable us to train our students to give the best possible care to those suffering from this debilitating condition.”