Have you or someone closer to you ever experienced sudden breathlessness and chest tightness and wondered if it was an asthma or panic attack? If so, you’re not alone, as distinguishing between these two conditions is quite perplexing due to similar symptoms. However, both differ in additional symptoms, triggers, management, and treatment plans. So, without further ado, let’s dive deep to unravel asthma attack vs panic attack:
What is an Asthma Attack?
According to reports, asthma affects more than 22 million Americans, a whopping high rate, right? But what happens in this condition? Well, asthma is a chronic respiratory disease of the airways. When asthma attacks, airways constrict, and lungs get inflamed. As a result, breathing becomes difficult because of the obstruction of passage caused by excessive mucus production.
Moreover, asthma attacks have a sudden onset, lasting for some minutes or several hours. For some, it’s mild, but for others, it can be severe or even lead to life-threatening asthma attacks.
Triggers
Asthma is triggered by some environmental factors which contribute to its onset. These include:
- Pollens
- Smoke
- Exercise
- Stress
- Certain foods
- Medications
- Dust mites
- Animal dander
- Respiratory infections like common cold or flu
If you have asthma, your trigger might be different from someone else. When you know your trigger, you can avoid it, which will control your symptoms.
Asthma Attack Symptoms
We know that the main symptoms you experience are difficulty breathing and chest tightness. But are there any other symptoms that are unique to asthma? Continuous coughing and wheezing (a whistling sound when breathing) are notable symptoms that people with asthma undergo during an attack.
Treatment Plan
First, talk to your doctor, who will devise a treatment plan based on your symptoms. It depends on your experience and how often you’re having an asthma attack.
Secondly, avoid asthma triggers like allergens that worsen your condition.
For quick relief, a rescue inhaler is the ultimate lifesaver to ease your symptoms. It contains medications such as:
- Corticosteroids, which reduce inflammation and
- Bronchodilators relax the muscles around the airways
If you’re having a severe asthma attack or the frequency is higher than before, you will need a higher dose of inhalers. So, consult your healthcare provider to change your dosage as needed.
What is a Panic Attack?
Picture this: You feel a sudden, intense, and overwhelming fear in situations of stress and anxiety. Not only this, you get physical symptoms: your heart starts racing, you experience nausea, sweating, breathlessness, and chest tightness, and this whole scenario lasts for 5 to 20 minutes. Do you wonder what this condition is? Well, that’s a panic attack, one of the symptoms of panic disorder, the other being anxiety.
In a panic attack, a sudden fear or anxiety takes over, resulting in physical symptoms like confusion, lightheadedness, nausea, pounding heart, sweating, and shaking.
Triggers
Sometimes, panic attacks occur unexpectedly, all of a sudden, or it gets triggered due to some factors. These can be:
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Phobias ( enclosed spaces of height)
- Certain medications
Panic attack is without physical harm but emotionally an uncomfortable and scary experience. This attack can also be triggered by being in the situation, environment, or place that brought out the attack in the past.
Symptoms
Symptoms that make panic attacks similar to asthma attacks are chest tightness and difficulty breathing. However, the symptoms that are unique to it include:
- Chest pain or palpitations
- Sweating and shaking
- Dizziness
- Fear of losing or dying
- Nausea
- Tingling and numbness of arms and legs
- Feeling like you’re going to have a heart attack
- A choking sensation
Panic attacks can happen once or twice a month or twice a week, lasting from some minutes to even hours.
Treatment Plans
The treatment of panic attacks is different from asthma attacks. Some medications, like antidepressants or anti-anxiety and beta blockers, help eliminate panic attacks. So, it’s better to talk with your doctor, who will make a treatment plan for you.
Other effective techniques are cognitive behavioral therapy, yoga, deep breathing exercises, and meditation, which help manage this condition. Moreover, relaxation techniques are highly effective in combating panic attacks. You can also join support groups or get involved in daily activities that will keep you relaxed and happy.
Asthma attack vs Panic attack – What’s the difference?
Knowing the differences between these two conditions is important to get proper treatment because medications that work for one don’t work for the other. We know that panic attacks and asthma attacks have similar symptoms that cause real confusion, but the root cause of both is different. In asthma, the airways constrict, and there is a lack of oxygen to the lungs, while in panic attacks, hyperventilation occurs, increasing oxygen in the body.
Your healthcare provider may perform spirometry or peak flow tests in asthma to diagnose the condition. At the same time, in a panic attack, doctors confirm the disorder by physical symptoms and blood tests to rule out other medical ailments.
An accurate diagnosis is necessary to receive proper treatment because if asthma is left untreated, it will lead to respiratory failure and death, while leaving panic untreated may result in other anxiety disorders and depression. Though panic attacks are not physically harmful, they’re debilitating and make life difficult.
The treatment action plan is also different for both of these conditions. For asthma, short-acting bronchodilators are used for quick relief, and long-acting bronchodilators are used for maintenance treatment. Also, anti-inflammatory drugs like corticosteroids reduce inflammation and constriction of lung airways. Furthermore, immunomodulators are used, which modify the immune response to allergens, reducing the severity of asthma symptoms.
While in a panic attack, anti-anxiety medications like benzodiazepines(which calm the body in response to stress) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors SSRIs (which prevent panic attacks) are commonly used.
Other techniques involve cognitive behavioral therapy in which negative thoughts are changed that contribute to disturbing emotions and replacing them with positive and realistic thoughts. Another approach requires mindfulness meditation to reduce stress and anxiety.
Can you have a panic attack and an asthma attack at the same time?
When you have either asthma or panic disorder, you can still distinguish them based on symptoms, but when you have both asthma and panic attacks at the same time, it becomes even more difficult to know which is causing all this. So, yeah, panic attacks and asthma attacks co-exist. It’s better to consult your doctor as soon as possible to be in safe hands. Telling your doctor symptoms and how often the attack occurs will help him diagnose and devise a treatment plan.
According to some studies, asthma increases your risk of getting panic disorders. Asthma and panic disorder co-occurrence is more prevalent than we can imagine. Here, the question arises: can panic attacks lead to asthma? The answer depends on the type of asthma you are having.
If exercise-induced, exercise is the main triggering factor; if it happens in allergy season, the cause is allergens. But in some cases, asthma is triggered by anxiety. This anxiety-induced asthma occurs when you have overwhelming panic, causing constriction of airways and difficulty breathing. So, the more you have difficulty breathing, the more you panic, showing the strong relationship between these two conditions.
The Bottom Line
So, by understanding the nuances of asthma attack vs panic attack, you can take control of your health by getting the right diagnosis and treatment plans. Although both present some similar symptoms, their differentiating factors should be kept in mind to deliver timely treatment. Thus, effective management will improve quality of life with fewer complications.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Can panic attacks cause asthma attacks?
Yes, panic attacks can cause asthma attacks due to respiratory involvement in both of them. When panic overpowers, it can lead to anxiety-induced asthma, turning off the lungs and causing more difficulty in breathing.
- How to tell the difference between a panic attack and an asthma attack?
Panic attack and asthma attack are two different medical conditions despite some similarities, i.e., symptoms like chest tightness and difficulty breathing. In an asthma attack, airways constrict, making it harder to exchange the air in and out of the lungs. In contrast, in a panic attack, you have overwhelming fear and anxiety with some physical symptoms, but if you focus, you can manage to breathe.
- Can panic attacks be cured?
Though panic attacks can’t be cured completely, they can be managed effectively by adopting special techniques and medications to make your life easier.