Psychobiological benefits of Dhikrullah breathing for emotional and cognitive recovery.

UNLABELLED: Long-term anxiety disrupts emotional, hormonal, and cognitive systems, including elevated cortisol and impaired memory performance.

OBJECTIVE

This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effects of Dhikrullah breathing therapy on anxiety symptoms, serum cortisol, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and memory performance.

METHODS

Anxiety levels were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-42), cortisol and BDNF concentrations were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and verbal memory was evaluated using a standardized word recall task.

RESULTS

Statistical analyses using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the paired t-test revealed significant reductions in anxiety (p=0.001) and cortisol levels (p=0.001), as well as a significant improvement in memory performance (p=0.001). In contrast, serum BDNF levels showed a small numerical decrease that was not statistically significant (p=0.284). Correlational analysis showed a moderate positive correlation between changes in BDNF and memory performance (r=0.54; p=0.01), as well as a moderate negative correlation between changes in BDNF and cortisol (r=-0.51; p=0.04). In addition, changes in anxiety were moderately negatively correlated with changes in memory performance (r=-0.50; p=0.005), whereas the correlation between changes in anxiety and cortisol was weak and not statistically significant (r=0.39; p=0.17).

CONCLUSION

Dhikrullah breathing therapy promotes positive changes in the emotional, hormonal, and cognitive responses of people who experience anxiety. Additional controlled studies are needed to determine the potential use of this treatment in both clinical and community mental health settings.