The effectiveness of Hypoventilation Therapy on Emotion processing and Anxiety Sensitivity in women with panic disorder.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Hypoventilation Therapy on Emotional processing and Anxiety Sensitivity in women with Panic Disorder. This semi-experimental study was conducted using pre-test and post-test with a control group. The statistical population included all panic disorder patients who visited the Seyed Hatami Ardabil Comprehensive Health center in summer and fall of 2018. From them, 30 patients were selected through the convenience sampling method and randomly placed into two equal experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 4 weeks (12 sessions and 17 minutes each session) of Hypoventilation Therapy, while the control group was just followed during this period. Emotional processing (Baker, Thomas, Thomas, Owens, 2007) and Anxiety Sensitivity (Reiss & Peterson, 1985) questionnaires were used in pre-test, post-test and follow-up as the study instruments. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance. The results of comparing post-test scores of the two groups showed that there were significant differences in Emotional processing and Anxiety Sensitivity scores of the intervention group and the control group (p<0.01). Thus, it can be stated that Hypoventilation Therapy reduced Emotional processing and Anxiety Sensitivity in Women with Panic Disorder.