PrimaryBreathe Trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PrimaryBreathe trial: Evaluating a primary care intervention for chronic breathlessness – a randomised controlled trial.
IRAS ID
357644
Contact name
Anna Spathis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
Breathlessness affects the daily lives of one in ten people with long-term health conditions, like lung or heart disease. Doctors and nurses often feel they cannot help when breathlessness persists despite treating the underlying condition. However, a few specialist teams have developed effective ways to support breathless people, for example with breathing or relaxation techniques. The treatment is safe and does not involve taking new medicine. This approach needs to be adapted so it can be accessed by more people through general practices.
The five-year PrimaryBreathe programme has already completed a co-design study, where patients, family or friend carers, general practice staff and researchers from Cambridge and Hull worked together to develop an acceptable primary care version of the treatment. A feasibility study has also been conducted to find out how feasible it is to implement in primary care. We are now in a position to begin the main Trial, to assess the clinical effectiveness and estimate the cost-effectiveness of the PrimaryBreathe intervention.REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/EE/0261
Date of REC Opinion
24 Dec 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion