A psychophysiological study of breathing behaviour.
Changes in resting breathing rate (RBR) of 101 acute psychiatric patients during the course of treatment in hospital have been measured.

Clinical improvement was significantly associated with a mean decrease of RBR of 3.40 breaths per minute.

Treatment with phenothiazines appeared to decrease RBR, while ECT and to a lesser extent anti-depressants appeared to increase it. There were no statistically significant differences between diagnostic groups in degree of change of RBR.