Dysfunctional breathing disorders

In this episode, Dr Stephen Child discusses dysfunctional breathing disorders - including assessment, investigation and management. Dysfunctional breathing is a term describing a group of breathing disorders in patients where chronic changes in breathing pattern result in dyspnoea and often non- respiratory symptoms in the absence of, or in excess of, organic respiratory disease.

Topics:

• 00:48 Starting with a definition
• 01:54 How common are these disorders?
• 02:56 What’s the pathophysiology behind these groups?
• 05:44 What about anxious patients?
• 07:10 Clinical features – how do these patients present?
• 09:03 What are we looking for on physical examination?
• 10:25 Is there a guide or questionnaire for diagnosis?
• 12:06 Diagnosis of exclusion
• 13:24 Red flags
• 14:30 Management of this condition – breath retraining
• 19:19 Should we refer to a trained physiotherapist?

Resources

• Breathing pattern disorders and physiotherapy: inspiration for our profession Physical Therapy Reviews (2011)
• Breathing Dysfunction/ Breathing Pattern Disorders New Zealand Respiratory Conference (2016)
• Breathing Pattern Disorders Physiopedia
• Breathing pattern disorders - Information for patients NHS (2019)
• Dysfunctional breathing: a review of the literature and proposal for classification European Respiratory Review (2016)

Presenter

Stephen Child
General Physician

Dr Stephen Child is a Canadian-trained General Physician with a respiratory medicine interest who moved to his current role as General Physician at Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) in 1994. Clinically, he has an interest in asthma and general internal medicine with a strong passion for medical education.