Alternate Names: Fast breathing; Tachypnea; Respiratory rate-rapid; Rapid breathing; Hyperventilation; Increased rate of breathing

Considerations: Hyperventilation almost always occurs in young adults. It is more common in women but is also frequent in men.

It usually occurs in people who are nervous and tense, but can also be a symptom of certain diseases and disorders.

Common Causes:

• anxiety and nervousness
• stress
• alcohol use
• asthma
• croup syndrome
• situations where there is a psychological advantage in having a sudden, dramatic illness
• severe pain
• drugs (such as an aspirin overdose)
• ketoacidosis and similar medical conditions
• pulmonary fibrosis
• congestive obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• interstitial pneumonia
• hantavirus
• bronchiolitis
• chemical pneumonitis
• diphtheria
• Group B streptococcal septicemia in the newborn
• meconium aspiration
• pleurisy
• pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
• respiratory distress syndrome
• respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
• total anomalous PV return

Home Care: Symptoms that result from rapid breathing can often be eliminated by breathing into a paper bag, so that the carbon dioxide is taken back into the lungs. This process usually takes anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes with a small PAPER bag held loosely over both the nose and the mouth.

Reassure the person that the hyperventilation is a symptom, not a disease. Usually when the anxiety or fear subsides, the symptom will subside also.

Call If:

• in doubt about what is causing the hyperventilation.
• there is severe pain.
• hyperventilation persists despite home treatment, or if it is accompanied by other symptoms.

What To Expect: The medical history will be obtained and a physical examination performed.

Medical history questions documenting your symptom in detail may include:

• How fast is the breathing?
• Is there nasal flaring, use of the chest muscles (intercostal retractions), blue skin (cyanosis), or other signs of difficulty breathing?
• Does the person feel short of breath? Do they complain of air hunger?
• What physical problems does the person have? Are they diabetic?
• What medications has the person taken?
• What is happening in the person’s life?
• Is there a feeling of anxiety or stress?
• Did anxiety trigger the hyperventilation, or did the hyperventilation occur and then the person become anxious?
• Is there pain? How much? What type? Where?
• What other symptoms are also present?

• ECG
• X-rays of the chest
• blood tests including arterial blood gases