Dysfunctional breathing in children

Abstract

Dysfunctional breathing (DB) describes a group of abnormal breathing patterns. The de inition of DB is unclear and no gold standard exists for diagnosis. Symptoms include hyperventilation, breathlessness, chest tightness and chest pain, but also anxiety, light-headedness and fatigue. Besides these symptoms, patients may also exhibit unsteadiness, exercise intolerance, frequent sighing and predominantly non-diaphragmatic respiratory efforts [1,2]. DB may result in either intermittent or chronic complaints. DB often remains undetected or may be falsely diagnosed as asthma, and may therefore be responsible for a serious burden of morbidity and unnecessary medication use.