Figure 2.

Effect of the humoristic intervention on total lung capacity (TLC) over a time period up to 24 hours in patients with COPD (panel A) and healthy controls (panel B). Shown are responses as partial residuals of the fitted regression model. Responders decreased their TLC for 500 mL to more than 1.55 L, which can be considered as clinically relevant. On the other hand, two individuals increased their total lung capacity by roughly 10% or 1 L over time. During the first 9 hours the patients were not allowed to inhale any medication unless used as a rescue medication (which did not occur). This might explain why some individuals increased their TLC.

*Significant number of missing values for healthy controls at 24 h.