Physicians have noted dyspnea in severely ill asthmatic patients to be associatedwith fright or panic; in more stable patients dyspnea\nmay reflect characteristics including lung function, personality and behavioral traits. This study evaluates the symptom of dyspnea\nin 32 asthmatic patients twice: first when acutely ill and again after an initial response to therapy. Spirometry was performed,\ndyspnea quantified (Borg scale), and panic assessed with a specialized measure of acute panic (the acute panic inventory (API)) in\nthe 32 patients before and again after treatment. After treatment, questionnaires to evaluate somatization and panic disorder were\nalso administered.When acutely ill, both the API and all spirometric measures (PEFR; FEV1; IC) correlated with dyspnea.Multiple\nlinear regression showed that measures of the API, the peak expiratory flow rate, and female sex taken together accounted for 41%\nof dyspnea in acute asthma. After treatment, the API again predicted dyspnea while spirometric data did not. Those subjects who\ndescribed themselves as having chronic panic disorder reported high grades of dyspnea after treatment also. We conclude that\ninterpretations of the self-report of asthma differ between acutely ill and stable asthmatic patients.
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