Asthma test and panic attack

[Soulfly1983]

Hi,

I would like to ask if spirometry test for asthma can be inaccurate if done during panic attack? Basically at the time when my test was done I was suffering from anxiety, and felt very stressed especially after I was given inhaler and I'm wondering if that could affect a result? Would you recommend to repeat test in this situation?

Regards

Adrian

[Beth_19]

From what I know the tests measure how the airways inside you lungs are working, so anxiety may have an impact, but I'm not absolutely positive on that.

They probably took that into consideration, but you could always talk to your consultant about it and say about your anxiety during the test and if that would have affected the tests.

[diana-stoyanova]

Hey Adrian. I'd say your panick attack should not have an effect on your spirometry for this very basic reason: in spirometry you need to inhale and exhale. That's pretty much it. You don't need to perform any other activity that could possibly be affected by your anxiety.

On the other hand, you can probably say that anxiety affects the spirometry when it is the initial reason for your current asthma attack. Having said that, it should still be considered an accurate spirometry as the point of this test is to see how you are breathing in the given moment, not in general or especially when you are at your healthiest.

I hope I made sense.