Using guided breathing exercises to prevent mental health complications in the post-COVID period

Abstract

The novel coronavirus infection has been one of the major public health issues of the past few years. Most COVID-19 patients report loss of energy, difficulty concentrating, memory loss and difficulty remembering, decreased motivation and mood. The purpose of our work was to determine the differences between general performance and brain rhythms in COVID-19 patients and those who had not been infected, and to assess the effects of breathing exercises (BE) on changes in these parameters in order to recommend the proposed therapy. The parameters of bioelectrical activity of the brain in patients after the novel coronavirus infection and those who had not been infected were studied by means of hardware-software complex «Omega-M». Statistical processing was performed using Microsoft Office.During the study, the following significant changes were observed: decreased efficiency in COVID-19 sufferers, reduced alpha and beta rhythms and negligible changes after BE compared to those who had not had COVID-19, and higher delta and theta waves and lack of their normalization after BE in COVID-19 sufferers. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the use of guided breathing exercises can be recommended after COVID-19.