Palabras clave: Asma Disnea funcional Ansiedad Control del asma a b s t r a c t Background: Few studies analyze the relationship between anxiety and alexithymia with dysfunctional breathing (DB) and its impact on quality of life and asthma control. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of DB in asthma, its impact on quality of life and asthma control, and its relationship with anxiety and alexithymia. Patients and methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 264 asthmatic

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... ts and 111 control subjects. Both groups completed the following questionnaires: quality of life (AQLQ), alexithymia (TAS-20), anxiety (STAI) and DB (Nijmegen). We evaluated each asthma patient for asthma severity, dyspnoea, exacerbation and control of the disease (ACT test). Results: 38% of asthmatics and 5.5% of non-asthmatics had DB. Asthma subjects had more anxiety and were more alexithymic. Asthmatics with DB had significantly more anxiety, more alexithymia, poorer asthma control, more exacerbations and poorer quality of life than asthmatics without DB. Asthmatics with an ACT < 19, a score >3 in the emotion subscale of the AQLQ, who were being treated for anxiety and scored >19 on the alexithymia subscale that assesses difficulty in identifying emotions, showed ORs for DB of 2.6 (1.1-5.9), 6.8 (2.9-15.8), 4.4 (1.9-9.8) and 3.3 (1.5-7), respectively. A predictive DB model was constructed for asthma patients. Conclusions: We have demonstrated the close relationship between anxiety, alexithymia and DB in asthmatics, as well as the significant impact of DB on the control and quality of life of asthma patients.