Rationale: Limited data on sex differences in advanced COPD are available. Objectives: To compare male and female emphysema patients with severe disease. Methods: One thousand fifty-three patients (38.8% female) evaluated for lung volume reduction surgery as part of the National Emphysema Treatment Trial were analyzed. Measurements and Main Results: Detailed clinical, physiological, and radiological assessment, including quantitation of emphysema severity and distribution from helical chest computed tomography, was completed. In a subgroup (n ϭ 101), airway size and thickness was determined by histological analyses of resected tissue. Women were younger and exhibited a lower body mass index (BMI), shorter smoking history, less severe airflow obstruction, lower DL CO and arterial PO 2 , higher arterial PCO 2 , shorter six-minute walk distance, and lower maximal wattage during oxygen-supplemented cycle ergometry. For a given FEV 1 % predicted, age, number of packyears, and proportion of emphysema, women experienced greater dyspnea, higher modified BODE, more depression, lower SF-36 mental component score, and lower quality of well-being. Overall emphysema was less severe in women, with the difference from men most evident in the outer peel of the lung. Females had thicker small airway walls relative to luminal perimeters. Conclusions: In patients with severe COPD, women, relative to men, exhibit anatomically smaller airway lumens with disproportionately thicker airway walls, and emphysema that is less extensive and characterized by smaller hole size and less peripheral involvement. What This Study Adds to the FieldIn patients with severe COPD, women, relative to men, exhibit anatomically smaller airway lumens with disproportionately thicker airway walls, and emphysema that is less extensive and characterized by smaller hole size and less peripheral involvement.

5Pulmonary and Critical Care Section, Veterans Affairs Health System, Ann Arbor, MichiganThe prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in women is increasing, as is hospitalization for COPD. The number of women dying of COPD in the United States now surpasses men. Despite this, research suggests that physicians are still more likely to correctly diagnose men with COPD than women. Increased tobacco use in women likely explains some of the increase in the prevalence of COPD in women, but data suggest that women may actually be at greater risk of smoking-induced lung function impairment, more severe dyspnea, and poorer health status for the same level of tobacco exposure. The degree to which these observations represent biologic, physiologic, or sociologic differences is not known. Nonsmokers with COPD are also more likely to be female. In addition, new evidence is emerging that men and women may be phenotypically different in their response to tobacco smoke, with men being more prone to an emphysematous phenotype and women an airway predominant phenotype. Inasmuch as COPD is a disease of inflammation, it is also possible that sexual dimorphism of the human immune response may also be responsible for gender differences in the disease. More data are still needed on what the implications of these findings are on therapy. In this clinical commentary, we present current knowledge regarding how gender influences the epidemiology, diagnosis, and presentation of COPD in addition to physiologic and psychologic impairments and we attempt to offer insight into why these differences might exist and how this may influence therapeutic management.

BACKGROUND: Low levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with poor outcomes in people with COPD. Interventions to increase PA could improve outcomes.

The natural course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is complicated by the development of systemic consequences and co-morbidities. These may be major features in the clinical presentation of COPD, prompting increasing interest. Systemic consequences may be defined as non-pulmonary manifestations of COPD with an immediate cause-and-effect relationship, whereas co-morbidities are diseases associated with COPD. The major systemic consequences/co-morbidities now recognized are: deconditioning, exercise intolerance, skeletal muscle dysfunction, osteoporosis, metabolic impact, anxiety and depression, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. The mechanisms by which these develop are unclear. Probably many factors are involved. Two appear of paramount importance: systemic inflammation, which presents in some patients with stable disease and virtually all patients during exacerbations, and inactivity, which may be a key link to most COPD-related co-morbidities. Further studies are required to determine the role of inflammatory cells/mediators involved in systemic inflammatory processes in causing co-morbidities; the link between activity and co-morbidities; and how COPD therapy may affect activity. Both key mechanisms appear to be influenced significantly by COPD exacerbations. Importantly, although the prevalence of systemic consequences increases with increasing severity of airflow obstruction, both systemic consequences and co-morbidities are already present in the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Stage II. This supports the concept of early intervention in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Although at present early intervention studies in COPD are lacking, circumstantial evidence suggests that current treatments may influence events leading to the systemic consequences and co-morbidities, and thus may affect the clinical manifestations of the disease.

Background:We sought to determine whether depressive or anxiety symptoms are associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalization or mortality. These data were collected as part of the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT), a randomized controlled trial of lung volume reduction surgery vs continued medical treatment conducted at 17 clinics across the United States between January 29, 1998, and July 31, 2002.Methods: Prospective cohort study among participants in the NETT with emphysema and severe airflow limitation who were randomized to medical therapy. Primary outcomes were 1-and 3-year mortality, as well as COPD or respiratory-related hospitalization or emergency department visit during the 1-year follow-up period. Of 610 patients randomized to medical therapy, complete data on hospitalization and mortality were available for 3 years of follow-up for 603 patients (98.9%).Results: Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) questionnaire, and anxi-ety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Among 610 subjects, 40.8% had at least mild to moderate depressive symptoms. Patients in the highest quintile of BDI score (BDI score, Ն15) had an increased risk of respiratory hospitalization in unadjusted analysis compared with patients in the lowest quintile (BDI score, Ͻ5) (odds ratio [OR], 2.26; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30-3.93). After adjustment for disease severity, this relationship was no longer statistically significant. The adjusted risk of 3-year mortality was increased among those in the highest quintile of BDI score (OR, 2.74; 95% CI, 1.42-5.29) compared with those in the lowest quintile. Anxiety was not associated with hospitalization or mortality in this population.Conclusions: Depressive symptoms are common in patients with severe COPD and are treated in few subjects. Depressive symptoms are associated with increased risk for 3-year mortality but not 1-year mortality or hospitalization.

Increased connectivity between DMN and executive control regions following mindfulness training could underlie increased capacity for volitional shifting of attention. The increased PCC-DLPFC rsFC following MBET was related to PTSD symptom improvement, pointing to a potential therapeutic mechanism of mindfulness-based therapies.

Asthma can be affected by stress, anxiety, sadness, and suggestion, as well as by environmental irritants or allergens, exercise, and infection. It also is associated with an elevated prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders. Asthma and these psychological states and traits may mutually potentiate each other through direct psychophysiological mediation, nonadherence to medical regimen, exposure to asthma triggers, and inaccuracy of asthma symptom perception. Defensiveness is associated with inaccurate perception of airway resistance and stress-related bronchoconstriction. Asthma education programs that teach about the nature of the disease, medications, and trigger avoidance tend to reduce asthma morbidity. Other promising psychological interventions as adjuncts to medical treatment include training in symptom perception, stress management, hypnosis, yoga, and several biofeedback procedures.

Background “Mindfulness-based” interventions show promise for stress-reduction in general medical conditions, and initial evidence suggests that they are well accepted in trauma-exposed individuals. Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) shows substantial efficacy for prevention of depression relapse, but it has been less studied in anxiety disorders. This study investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and clinical outcomes of an MBCT group intervention adapted for combat PTSD. Methods Consecutive patients seeking treatment for chronic PTSD (veterans of Vietnam, Korea, WWII, Desert Storm) at a VA outpatient clinic were enrolled in eight week MBCT groups, modified for PTSD (four groups, n=20) or brief treatment-as-usual (TAU) comparison group interventions (three groups, n=16). MBCT consisted of PTSD psychoeducation, mindfulness of body, breath, and emotions, mindful movement, exercises for managing intrusive thoughts and feelings, and daily home practice though audio recording. Pre- and post-therapy psychological assessments with clinician administered PTSD scale (CAPS) were performed with all patients, and self-report measures (PTSD diagnostic scale, PDS, and Posttraumatic cognitions inventory, PTCI) were administered in the MBCT group. Results Pre- to post-treatment effects analysis demonstrated significant improvement in PTSD symptoms. Intent to treat analyses showed significant improvement in CAPS (t(19)=4.8, p<.001) in the MBCT condition but not the TAU conditions, and a significant Condition*Time interaction (F[1,26]=16.4, p<.005). MBCT completers analysis (n =15, 75%) also showed good compliance with assigned homework exercises, and significant and clinically meaningful improvement in PTSD symptom severity on post-treatment assessment in CAPS and PDS (particularly in avoidance/numbing symptoms), and reduced PTSD-relevant cognitions in PTCI (in particular, self-blame). Conclusions These data suggest group mindfulness-based cognitive therapy as an acceptable brief intervention / adjunct therapy for combat PTSD, with potential for reducing avoidance symptom cluster and PTSD cognitions. Further studies are needed to examine efficacy in a randomized controlled design and to identify factors influencing acceptability and effectiveness.