Ago This feature is part of a year-long series of excerpts and special commentaries celebrating AFP 's 50th year of publication. Excerpts from the two 1950 volumes of GP , AFP 's predecessor, appear along with highlights of 50 years of family medicine. The commentary is provided by Sumi Makkar, M.D., editorial fellow for AFP . Hyperventilation Syndrome Hyperventilation syndrome is produced when a patient has some stimulus leading to overbreathing with a resultant loss of carbon dioxide from the lungs. Although the physician sees such a case practically every day and the symptoms follow a fairly definite pattern, too often it is incorrectly diagnosed.
Hyperventilation syndrome is a symptom complex seen practically every day of a physician's practice.
Or, all too frequently, the patient is diagnosed as having a serious illness, generally heart disease. It is the purpose of this paper to stress the common occurrence of this syndrome in the everyday practice of the general practitioner, the internist, and every other specialist. Because of its bizarre manifestations and its basic etiology, it is seen by everyone regardless of the limitation of one's practice. Too many of us have been lulled into a sense of false security by medical school teachings. We were taught to diagnose all organic diseases and have been exposed to those stressing psychosomatic complaints.