Functional Aspects of an Organic Respiratory Disorder: Cystic Fibrosis

R.D. Anbar (ed.), Functional Respiratory Disorders: When Respiratory Symptoms Do Not Respond to Pulmonary Treatment, Respiratory Medicine, DOI 10.1007/978-1-61779-857-3_2, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract The management of respiratory diseases with organic causes often can be complicated by the emergence of concurrent functional respiratory symptoms. Thus, clinicians must be alert to the possibility that functional symptoms may develop in this setting. For example, anxiety with associated dyspnea can affect the management of many patients with signi fi cant respiratory disease such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fi brosis (CF). An understanding of functional aspects of respiratory disorders will aid the clinician in identifying the correct cause of symptoms. In turn, this will help guide the application of appropriate therapy, thus preventing unnecessary tests and treatments that may compound an existing medical problem or create a new one. As an example illustrating how clinicians can approach patients with a respiratory disease that can have both organic and functional components, this chapter focuses on patients with CF. Case studies are presented through which the clinician will gain a better appreciation for the interaction of functional and organic causes of symptoms in this setting.