Respiratory Control Technique and Heart Rate Variability in a Child With Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: A Case Study

• Autor(a) principal: Catela, David
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Alves, Susana, Piscalho, Isabel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.15/2495
• topic: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Breathing Technique; Heart Rate Variability; Child

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated to a lower respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and to a lower heart rate variability (HRV). The purpose of this study is to verify if through breath control, an ADHD boy (9 years old) could increase HRV. During breathing control, the child significantly reduced breathing frequency (BF) and heart rate (HR); significantly augmented mean RR interval and pNN50; augmented HRVi (ns) and HF (ns); and reduced LF/HF ratio (ns). Consequently, during short training sessions, this child had the capacity to augment various parameters of HRV, suggesting an increasing of vagal activity. If vagal activity was reinforced during breathing control, it means that maybe a process of bottom-up adjustment of attention and emotional responses can be promoted.