Abstract

People with chronic obstructive lung disease are characterised by exertional dyspnoea and low work capacity. Although physical training is considered beneficial, studies reporting improved work tolerance following exercise regimesare often flawed by weakness in experimental design. Moreover, subjects with aneurotic fear of any physical effort may be highly susceptible to psychotherapeutic aspects of treatment, yet few attempts have been made to relate the physiology to the psychology of training. This study investigated physiological and psychological responses of 19 patients before and after approximately 4 weeks training. The exercise consisted of daily sessions of treadmill walking, but differed in duration and intensity for the experimental and control group. Verf.-Referat