Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials
Summary & key facts
Researchers combined results from many controlled trials to see if breathwork helps stress and common mental health symptoms. They found that, across trials, breathwork was linked with a small-to-moderate drop in people’s self-reported stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. However, many of the trials had some risk of bias and differed from each other, so the authors say the results are promising but should be treated with caution until higher-quality studies confirm them.
- The review looked for controlled trials up to February 2022 and combined about 12 trials that measured self-reported stress, involving roughly 800 adults in total.
- Across those stress trials, breathwork was associated with a small-to-moderate reduction in self-reported stress compared with control groups.
- Separate analyses found similar small-to-moderate improvements for self-reported anxiety across about 20 studies and for depressive symptoms across about 18 studies.
- The size of the benefits on stress, anxiety and depression was roughly in the range of 0.3 to 0.4 on the statistical scale researchers use, which is described as a small-to-moderate effect.
- Most of the included studies were judged to have a moderate risk of bias, and the results varied between studies. This means the overall findings are uncertain and could change with better studies.
- Because breathwork covers many different techniques and the studies varied in how the practice was delivered, the review could not say which specific breathing method or delivery method works best.
Abstract
= 42%. Meta-analyses for secondary outcomes of self-reported/subjective anxiety (k = 20) and depressive symptoms (k = 18) showed similar significant effect sizes: g = - 0.32, p < 0.0001, and g = - 0.40, p < 0.0001, respectively. Heterogeneity was moderate and significant for both. Overall, results showed that breathwork may be effective for improving stress and mental health. However, we urge caution and advocate for nuanced research approaches with low risk-of-bias study designs to avoid a miscalibration between hype and evidence.
