Breathing Pattern Disorder - Physiotherapy appointment

This page is for patients who have been referred to see a specialist physiotherapist, because it has been identified that some of your breathlessness could be due to a change in your breathing pattern from the 'normal'. 

This often triggers your symptoms earlier and they last longer, making your lung condition symptoms appear worse.

A breathing pattern disorder is when your body has adapted to a particular way of breathing due to stressors or triggers, which means your body has lost its natural rhythm.

You may be using the upper chest rather than your diaphragm (muscles below the lungs), or breathing using your mouth rather than your nose.

This can lead to over breathing which can cause a chemical imbalance in the blood, causing feelings like

• Feeling you can’t fill your lungs up enough.
• Breathlessness when doing minimal exercise.
• Frequent sighing and yawning. 
• Palpitations. 
• ‘Pins and needles’ in hands/mouth. 
• Feeling permanently exhausted. 
• Throat symptoms including coughing. 
• Light headedness.

Over breathing is a normal reaction to any stressful situation, including colds/upper airway viruses. However sometimes due to a prolonged trigger or increased stress, the breathing does not return to normal.

It is possible to re-train your breathing pattern, initially learning to control the symptoms when resting, before progressing onto maintaining the correct pattern of breathing during your day-to-day life. This in turn allows you to keep a greater sense of control over your breathing.

What to expect in your first appointment

The first appointment will be around 60 minutes. Don’t worry, you won’t be exercising on your first appointment and the exercises you will be given initially will be starting to retrain your breathing while resting.

Attendance

If you are unable to attend your appointment, please phone us to rearrange as soon as you can so we can fill the appointment slot (phone number on back of leaflet). If you have any other questions, please get in contact. 

Websites for more information: 

Physiotherapy for breathing pattern disorders 

Breathing Freely (breathetrain.co.uk)

© North Bristol NHS Trust. This edition published May 2024. Review due May 2027. NBT003695.