28 th April 1999 One of the components of a panic attack is hyperventilation, or over-breathing. This means that the person is removing carbon dioxide from their blood more rapidly than it is being produced, upsetting the pH of the blood. The blood becomes increasingly alkaline, and this causes a number of changes which will affect brain function - the person experiences dizziness and may faint. So it is unlikely that a person will turn blue, but they may become paler intially as a result of the stress they are experiencing.
Panic attacks reach maximum intensity within a minute or two of onset.
Rapid physiological changes occur associated with overwhelming feelings of dread and anxiety. They diminish slowly over the next 30 minutes or the next several hours. Treatment is now very effective, and includes the use of special breathing patterns and anti-depressant drugs. Surfactant is a family of phospholipids with detergent-like properties. Without surfactant, the alveoli would be in constant danger of collapsing from surface tension.