Chronic Heart Failure (CHF)

Persistent dyspnea is a debilitating symptom, that is common and difficult to treat. This symptom is found in many different diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung disease (ILD), chronic heart failure (CHF), and metastatic cancer. Dyspnea is associated with many other symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and fatigue and is responsible for a significant reduction in quality of life. To date, only opiates are recommended for the pharmacological treatment of persistent dyspnea. The effectiveness of hypnosis is well known in the treatment of anxiety and delivered to patients suffering from chronic dyspnea for this reason. One randomised controlled study has shown that a single 20-minute mindfulness sessions could significantly reduce general symptom burden and have a significant impact on anxiety and depression in palliative care patients. Furthermore, the intervention had no negative side effects. Our aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of three hypnosis sessions on breathlessness mastery in patients with persistent dyspnea, using as a primary outcome the mastery domain of a validated tool, the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ).

Medication non-adherence leads to recurrent admissions, worsening symptoms, poor quality of life, and increased healthcare costs in an already overburdened health system. Existing adherence interventions in Pakistan are limited, mostly educational, and rarely guided by behavioural theory, implementation science, or economic evaluation. Therefore, a culturally appropriate, RE-AIM-informed autonomy-competence intervention is needed to improve medication adherence and quality of life among heart failure patients in Pakistan, while also assessing implementation feasibility and cost-effectiveness for future scale-up.

Evaluating the safety and efficacy of glimepiride in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction--a multicenter randomized controlled study.