NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A certain type of yoga-based meditation may provide short-term relief for people with mild to severe asthma whose symptoms persist despite their use of asthma medication, study findings suggest.

However, a second study that looked at a number of different relaxation techniques, including hypnotherapy and biofeedback, concludes that there is insufficient evidence to indicate that the therapies help people with asthma. Both studies are published in the February issue of the journal Thorax.

In the first study, Dr. Guy B. Marks of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine in Australia and his colleagues randomly assigned nearly 50 people with asthma to a group that practiced Sahaja yoga or a comparison group that practiced other relaxation methods, mental exercises and engaged in group discussions.

The Sahaja yoga technique is an Indian system of meditation that is purported to be ``an innately therapeutic process which is beneficial for all chronic diseases, mental or physical, including asthma,'' according to the report. In practicing the technique, meditators use silent psychological affirmations in order to reach a state of ``mental silence,'' in which they are fully alert but not engaged in thought or any other type of mental activity.

Both groups attended 2-hour sessions once a week for 4 months and were encouraged to practice the learned techniques at home for 10 to 20 minutes twice each day.

After 4 months of the intervention, lung tests showed that people in the yoga group had a greater reduction in airway hyperresponsiveness than those in the comparison group. Airway hyperresponsiveness, or ``twitchiness,'' is the tendency of the lungs to overreact to harmless substances, such as pollen or dust, by closing up tiny airways--a hallmark of asthma. Those in the yoga group also reported a greater decrease in tension and fatigue than did their peers in the comparison group.

``Sahaja yoga causes a reduction in airway twitchiness in patients with moderate to severe asthma,'' Marks told Reuters Health.

``It is possible that further study of the effect of yogic meditation practices and altered breathing patterns on people with asthma may lead to new strategies to assist patients with moderate and severe asthma,'' Marks added.

However, the differences between the groups were no longer evident 2 months later, the report indicates.

``The benefit (of Sahaja yoga) was limited in extent,'' Marks said. ``This research should not lead people to stop their regular anti-asthma therapy.'' All the participants continued to take their medication during the study.

In the second study, a team of UK researchers reviewed 15 different trials of relaxation therapies and found that ``there is a lack of evidence for the efficacy of relaxation therapies in the management of asthma.''

The therapies included a number of techniques, including Jacobsonian progressive relaxation, which is a routine of tensing and relaxing all of the 15 muscle groups, and transcendental meditation, which is mental repetition of a mantra to bring about deep relaxation.

``Overall, the quality of the studies found were poor and therefore it was impossible to judge definitively,'' lead study author Dr. Alyson Huntley of the University of Exeter in England, told Reuters Health.

For example, some studies had only a small number of people while others had study periods that were too short. Only nine of the studies included an appropriate comparison between a treatment group and a ``control'' (non-treatment comparison) group, Huntley's team notes.

``However, there was some evidence for muscular relaxation improving breathing tests of asthma sufferers,'' Huntley said.

Of the nine studies, one concluded that in a group of 20 asthmatic boys, Jacobson's relaxation improved forced expiratory volume by roughly 18%, meaning that the amount of air the boys were able to expel from their lungs during a certain time was greater after they participated in the relaxation technique, the report indicates.

Furthermore, one of the remaining six studies concluded that massage treatment for a group of 4- to 8-year-old asthmatics resulted in a 37% improvement in forced expiratory volume. However, no similar significant effects were observed among the 9- to 14-year-olds included in the study.

``More research on the role of relaxation techniques for asthma symptoms is required,'' Huntley concludes.

SOURCE: Thorax 2002;57:110-115, 127-131.

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