Biofeedback for Asthma Comorbid With Anxiety or Depression

Twenty patients with a history of treatment, within the past year, of both asthma and either depression or an anxiety disorder will be recruited for this study. Patients will be recruited from their doctors and from advertisements. The investigators will randomly assign patients to two groups, using a crossover design. One group will first receive three months with four biweekly sessions of heart rate variability biofeedback treatment, and then will be followed for three months with a daily symptom diary. The other group will first be followed for three months, and then given the three months of treatment. In both treatment and following procedures, patients will receive psychophysiological testing sessions at the beginning and end of the three month period. The investigators will assess symptoms of asthma, anxiety, and depression as well as pulmonary function and will measure heart rate (from electrodes on the wrists), respiration (through a belt around the waist), end tidal carbon dioxide (through a cannula in the nose).