Relief of an attack of vegetovascular dystonia

Vegetovascular dystonia (VVD) is a syndrome that may be due to the characteristics of the patient’s body or provoked by various external and internal factors. Often there is an exacerbation of VVD in the fall. Attacks that occur every day exhaust a person, violate the quality of life. Drug therapy for exacerbation of VVD is often ineffective.

Doctors of the Yusupov hospital carry out preventive treatment of patients suffering from vegetovascular dystonia. Neurologists, endocrinologists, internists, gastroenterologists jointly decide on the scheme of examination of the patient. Severe cases of vegetovascular dystonia are discussed at a meeting of the Expert Council, in which candidates and doctors of medical sciences take part. The medical staff is attentive to the wishes of patients, takes into account their emotional background.

Symptoms of vegetovascular dystonia

The VVD syndrome is of a constitutional nature, occurs against the background of endocrine changes or develops with organic lesions of the central nervous system. Signs of constitutional VVD are:

sweating

rapid change in skin color

fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure

causeless temperature rises up to 39.0-37.10

Patients do not tolerate physical and mental stress, changing weather conditions.

The VVD syndrome that developed during puberty against the background of endocrine dysfunction is characterized by the following manifestations:

vegetative-vestibular crises that begin with dizziness and proceed with a predominance of vagoinsular symptoms

hunger, thirst, libido

thermoregulation disorders, pathological paroxysmal drowsiness

seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy

The hypothalamic syndrome is characterized by various combinations of autonomic, endocrine, metabolic and trophic disorders, which are caused by damage to the hypothalamus and its closest connections. Typical symptoms of VVD in women in the acute stage:

early menopause;

changes in the thyroid gland of hypothalamic origin;

acromegaloid phenomena.

On the electroencephalogram, changes are detected that indicate the involvement of the deep structures of the brain in the process. The defeat of the hypothalamus is characterized by sleep and wakefulness disorders in the form of difficulty falling asleep, drowsiness during the day and superficial disturbing sleep at night.

With damage to the connections of the hypothalamus with the temporal lobes of the brain, symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy join:

aura 1-3 minutes with sensations of peristalsis, nausea, abdominal pain;

pain in the heart, palpitations, arrhythmia;

labored breathing;

increased salivation;

involuntary chewing, swallowing;

sweating followed by loss of consciousness and tonic-clonic convulsions.

If the connections with the brain stem are affected, neurologists determine the dilation of the pupils, a disorder in the functions of the reticular formation with signs of narcolepsy, a neurological disorder in which a person loses the ability to control his own state), cataplexy (a state of sudden loss of muscle tone with full preservation of consciousness). Sleep and wakefulness are disturbed in patients.

The similarity of some symptoms of VVD with signs of endocrine diseases is the reason for additional examinations by the doctors of the Yusupov hospital. The manifestation of adrenergic crises creates the need to exclude pheochromocytoma. To exclude it, patients perform suprarenography , pyelography, computed tomography, and scintigraphy. Do a urine test during an attack, which determines the level of catecholamines.

With VVD, there are no organic changes on the part of all body systems, at the same time, functional disorders are determined, especially on the part of the cardiovascular and digestive systems. Symptoms of VVD are most pronounced during the period of exacerbation.

Patients present with the following complaints:

weakness, fatigue, lethargy, especially in the morning;

discomfort, discomfort or stabbing, pressing, burning, squeezing pains in the region of the heart of varying intensity;

feelings of lack of air, dissatisfaction with inhalation, cough;

anxiety, sleep disturbances, restlessness, irritability, excessive concentration of attention on the unpleasant symptoms of one’s illness;

frequent headaches, dizziness;

increased sweating;

lability of blood pressure and vascular tone.

Depending on the prevailing changes in vascular tone, normotensive , hypotensive, hypertensive and mixed types of vegetovascular dystonia are distinguished. With the hypotonic type of VVD, signs of vascular insufficiency come to the fore. Arterial pressure at the same time is below 100/60 mm Hg . The patient is concerned about fatigue, weakness, a tendency to change blood pressure when moving the body from a horizontal to a vertical position. Often there are fainting, which is preceded by darkening in the eyes, dizziness.

With the hypertensive type of IRR, blood pressure rises more than 140/90 mm Hg . The leading complaints are:

headache;

fast fatiguability;

palpitations, up to paroxysmal tachycardia.

In the region of the heart, zones of increased pain sensitivity are sometimes determined. Hypotonic and hypertonic types of VVD are accompanied by reddening of the skin of the neck and face, cold extremities, marbling of the skin pattern.

If the patient is disturbed by pain in the region of the heart, sometimes sharp, burning, stabbing, often poorly localized, palpitations, a feeling of interruptions in the work of the heart, this is a cardiac type of IRR.

Symptoms of VVD in the acute stage

The cardiovascular symptom complex in VVD is manifested by the following symptoms:

change in heart rate;

lability of arterial pressure;

pathological vasomotor reactions (redness, cyanosis, pallor of the skin, hot flashes, chilliness of the feet, hands).

In the acute stage, there are burning, stabbing, pressing, throbbing pains or discomfort in the region of the heart. The respiratory symptom complex is manifested by increased ventilation (rapid deep breathing), psychogenic shortness of breath (sniffling, yawning, coughing, periodic deep breaths). Hyperventilation always accompanies anxiety. Shortness of breath is accompanied by dissatisfaction with inhalation, a feeling of lack of air, shortness of breath, a feeling of stopping breathing. In the acute stage, there are muscle spasms, a feeling of crawling around the mouth and in the distal extremities. Neurologists determine the Khvostek symptom – a contraction of the muscle that raises the corner of the mouth when tapping in the projection of the facial nerve. Hyperventilation can cause the following symptoms:

headache;

pre-fainting state;

pain in the region of the heart;

violation of the heart rhythm;

pain in the abdomen, combined with increased peristalsis, nausea, belching with air.

The gastrointestinal symptom complex is characterized by a disorder of the functions of the digestive organs. It may show the following symptoms:

impaired appetite, motility of the esophagus, stomach or intestines;

psychogenic dysphagia (difficulty, discomfort during the act of swallowing or inability to take a sip);

vomiting;

a feeling of heaviness in the epigastrium ;

transient flatulence (bloating of the intestines);

diarrhea

pain in the abdomen.

The thermoregulatory symptom complex is manifested by an increase or decrease in temperature, a chill syndrome. The vasomotor symptom complex consists of several symptoms:

pallor, cyanosis of the skin;

chilliness of the hands, feet;

sensations of hot flashes or cold;

changes in dermographism (weak mechanical irritation of the skin when held with a blunt object causes a trace in the form of an inflamed swelling);

excessive sweating of the hands and feet.

The genitourinary complex is characterized by cystalgia (increased painful, imperative urination in the absence of pathology of the urinary system or changes in the urine) and sexual dysfunction (erection or ejaculation disorders in men, vaginismus or anorgasmia in women with preserved or reduced libido, painful menstruation). Hormonal fluctuations, including endocrine restructuring of the body after childbirth, postpartum stress provoke an exacerbation of VVD symptoms.

The neurotic symptom complex is manifested by the following symptoms:

fatigue;

asthenia;

low threshold of pain sensitivity;

sleep disorders;

irritability;

senestopathies (pain in the heart, a feeling of dissatisfaction with the breath, a burning sensation in different parts of the body).

VVD proceeds with a wave-like increase and weakening of the manifestations of symptom complexes. This is due to a change in etiological factors and living conditions of the patient. There may be an exacerbation of VVD in the fall. Symptoms of the disease are most pronounced during the “vegetative storm” or crises.