Symptoms
The symptoms of psychogenic hyperventilation are often described under the synonym “hyperventilation syndrome”. Despite the increased breathing, patients experience a feeling of breathlessness, so that they often panic and become even more involved in accelerated but also ineffective breathing. The most common symptoms reported by patients are cold sweat, trembling, panic, dizziness, headache, increased reflexes, chest pain, palpitations and tachycardia.
In most cases, the symptoms appear acutely and disappear again as quickly as they came. However, if this is not the case, it can have more far-reaching effects. Due to the developing respiratory alkalosis, paresthesia may occur.
This refers to unpleasant sensations of certain areas of the skin, which are usually painless and are often described as “tingling” and “formication”. These paresthesias occur as follows: the respiratory alkalosis in the blood causes some proteins to release their protons and thus become negatively charged.Now they are able to intercept the double positively charged calcium that circulates in the blood, resulting in a relative calcium deficiency. Relatively, because in principle still enough and/or the same quantity of calcium is present, only evenly the body is not at the disposal.
The calcium deficiency induces tetany (muscle cramps). In extreme cases, the hands may cramp. In addition to hyperventilation tetany due to respiratory alkalosis, the low pCO2 particularly affects the vessels in the brain.
A high CO2 value, which at the same time implies a low O2 value, leads to vascular dilatation so that the brain can be supplied with a lot of blood despite low oxygen content in the best possible way. On the other hand, however, in the case of psychogenic hyperventilation and the associated low pCO2, vasoconstriction occurs, so that those affected suffer from headaches, dizziness and impaired vision due to the reduced perfusion of the brain. Typical for those affected is therefore nervous behavior with functional complaints such as muscle cramps and visual disturbances, but also gastrointestinal problems and sleep disorders. In the worst case, a psychogenic hyperventilation attack can lead to unconsciousness.
