Breathing Control Training

BCT is substantially cheaper than multi-session psychological interventions and offers an acceptability advantage because it does not require patients to frame their disorder as psychiatric. In asthma patients, BCT improves hyperventilation symptoms on the Nijmegen scale, reduces anxiety and depression scores, and improves quality of life without affecting objective airway function. A standard BCT course consists of a single 60-minute initial session followed by a 30-minute refresher session at one month. Home exercises of 5–10 minutes twice daily are prescribed in BCT and recorded in a diary. In a pilot study, 7 of 10 participants with functional seizures showed improved seizure frequency after BCT, and 3 achieved complete seizure remission with no adverse events reported. Breathing Control Training is a physiotherapist-delivered intervention originally developed for asthma. BCT teaches diaphragmatic breathing with calm, slow nasal expiration and eliminates dysfunctional patterns including hyperinflation and hyperventilation.