Dear lmj113-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I will try to tell you as much as I can without bridging the
policy of medical advice, which we clearly cannot provide you with in
this forum for obvious reasons. I recommend you pose your question to
a licensed physician who is experienced in this area but in the
meantime I will endeavor to tell you what my research has found.
?Vasovagal? is a broad term that refers to a variety of situations in
which the vagus nerve is stimulated, and which in turn leads to a
slowing of the heart rate and dilation of the body's blood vessels.
With a slow heart rate and dilated blood vessels, less blood gets to
the brain, and fainting often occurs. This fainting episode is called
?vasovagal syncope? and can be brought on in many people susceptible
to it by pain, fear of pain, stress (such as a difficult urination or
bowel movement, etc) and occasionally emotional shock. Some children
experience ?presyncope? which is basically dizziness or the feeling
that they are about to faint.
Pain as a result of vasovagal syncope is rare ? it is usually the
other way around ? but pain associated with whatever is causing the
vasovagal syncope is more likely. For example, if your child is
susceptible to vasovagal syncope because of a painful or annoying
heart murmur and the heart murmur is caused by some other disease or
defect, the both the pain and the vasovagal syncope are probably
symptomatic of some larger affliction rather than related to one
another.
On the other hand, a child (not yours necessarily) who has chest pains
or abdominal pains related to a heart defect for example and
experiences a vasovagal episode, then perhaps the ?pain? is directly
related to obstructive outflow defect while the subsequent vasovagal
episode is a response to the pain. Vasovagal experiences do not
normally cause pain, but pain can trigger a vasovagal episode.
Some conditions that can bring about vasovagal syncope are:
Myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle), head injury,
epilepsy, stroke, inner ear problems, encephalitis (brain infection),
various tumors and colitis, just to name a few, all of which can
indeed be painful, and dehydration, low blood sugar, and breath
holding episodes which are usually not as painful if painful at all.
Anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction to medications, insect stings or
other stimuli is has misdiagnosed as vasovagal syncope in the past and
this condition does cause some pain in some people. Pin-and-needles,
nausea, vomiting, tightness of the chest and palpitations are few that
have been described.
Syncope can resemble other conditions or medical problems. There are
tests that can be easily done to determine if this is a problem. In
most instances specific treatments for syncope will be determined by
your child's physician based on a number of factors, like age,
tolerance for certain medications, etc., but in almost all instances
it will probably be suggested that you try to avoid the trigger
mechanisms as much a reasonably possible (keep the child calm, avoid
rapid heartbeat situations if this is murmur or defect related, and so
on).
Regardless, a pain is often an indicator that something is wrong. It
is the body?s alert system telling is that something is amiss in our
bodies. Vasovagal episodes in response to pain are not an unusual
phenomenon in patients who are susceptible to have them, even though
the underlying cause of the pain should probably be investigated. Pain
directly related to a vasovagal episode itself on the other hand is
probably something that one should consider being examined by a
physician for, as this could be indicative or a more serious, or
perhaps undiagnosed problem such as heart disease, epilepsy or other
cerebral disturbance.
I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS
http://uuhsc.utah.edu/healthinfo/pediatric/cardiac/syncope.htm
PEDIATRIC CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR NURSES IN PRIMARY CARE
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fnihb-dgspni/fnihb/ons/nursing/resources/pediatric_guidelines/chapter_20.htm
WHAT IS SYNCOPE?
http://www.rchc.rush.edu/syncope%20body.htm
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Syncope
Vasovagal
Pediatric
Pain
Causes
Symptoms |
Clarification of Answer by
tutuzdad-ga
on
23 Mar 2004 11:41 PST
According to physicians at the Mayo Clinic?s Department of Internal
Medicine some otherwise healthy persons simply have a vasovagal
response to a blood or injury PHOBIA if not to an injury itself. These
emotional reactions are not found to be consistent in tests subjects;
some reacted while others did not. It is believed to be fundamentally
due to dysfunction in neural circulatory control, which may
secondarily lead to the phobia because of repeated syncopal events. In
other words, the circulation of blood in and to the brain is
decreased, perhaps even genetically, and when these shocking events
occur and restrict blood flow as shocking emotional responses often
do, the brain is temporarily deprived of adequate oxygen and fainting
occurs. Over time, a phobia can develop related to the event itself
and the fear of having the episode exacerbates the situation and
effectively enables it if enough anxiety is present. A prime example
of this is a husband who takes a header into the floor while watching
(i.e., assisting) his wife in childbirth.
?PREDISPOSITION TO VASOVAGAL SYNCOPE IN SUBJECTS WITH BLOOD/INJURY PHOBIA.?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=21405327
It may be that you have an emotionally sensitive child who also
happens to have a predisposition to a vasovagal response because of
some blood flow restriction to the brain. It may also be that your
child has understandably developed an anxiety about these embarrassing
and unexplainable fainting spells (syncopal events) that lead to his
dizziness in some instances but not others. That is to say that a
visit to the clinic or the dentist for a shot (which has long since
been known as one of the most stressful in the mind of a young child)
is much worse for him that say, stumping his toe, because of the
anticipation, compounding fear of the unknown and perhaps even dread
leading up to the event.
This is not unknown response even in adults. In this case for example
a young man stuck himself on a nail, jumped backwards and struck his
knee ? both very minor injuries. But when the young man was given a
shot to help prevent infection, he had a vasovagal response and
dropped like a rock.
LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER A MINOR INJURY.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0BUY/9_10/65950037/p1/article.jhtml
The phenomenon is being studied to determine more about it but
researcher believe they are on the right track:
?In particular, we are investigating the relative contributions of the
emotions of fear and of disgust of BII stimuli, to elicitation of the
vasovagal reaction. (See Penner & Kleinknecht, 1994; Kleinknecht,
Thorndike, Tolin, & Lohr, 1996; Kleinknecht, Thorndike, & Kleinknecht,
(1997). Our current data suggest that fear is the primary determinant
of fainting in BII situations. Disgust is either not related or is
inversely related to fainting symptoms in our latest data set.
(Kleinknecht, et al., 1997).?
CURRENT RESEARCH
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~knecht/homeres.html
Vasovagal syncope without underlying disease or defect is relatively
rare in children below 12 years of age, but not unheard of. The upshot
is that the prognosis is excellent. Most of the episodes resolve by
the time the child is 4-5 years old. Yours however might be an
exception, but I?m sure a psychologist could advise you further should
you shoose to consult one.
I hope this adds significantly to what we have already discussed.
Regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
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