Psychophysiologic aspects of respiratory control.

By fashion we have been taught that causes of medical and surgical diseases are known; yet in reality very little was understood about disease until recently, and we still operate in a scientific twilight. We have worked with myths inventing scientific explanations to cover our lack of knowledge about the causative factors in illness, and we have traditionally examined physiologic organ systems from a fragmented perspective. The psychological variables of behavior and emotion have not been considered as directly related to physiological functioning. Consequently, by convention, certain disease entities have been defined and categorized by behavior and feelings. Persons function as a psychobiologic unit. A complex interplay between persons and their environment determines their state of health. Identification and appropriate application of the physiologic and psychological components have been disassociated to such an extent that the systematic relationship of behavioral and physical patterns of functioning are not recognized. Nevertheless, with increasing awareness of respiratory psychobiologic adaptive influences, the chemical and mechanical control system is better understood. The existence of secondary breathing disorders, in pulmonary disease, are not isolated to a physiologic genesis. With the advent of new instruments (i.e., Coping Scale and Schedule of Recent Experience) to measure and quantify adaptive factors, wide swings of activation can be more readily stabilized.