Can asthma cause fainting?

[Cricket45]

My daughter (15) has been taking asthma medication since she was 12 yrs. She is a normal 15 yr. old tom boy - loves being outside. She has recently had "attacks" where she says she doesn't feel well and ends up loosing consciousness.  The first time it happened she was out for a good 20 minutes.  This can happen at school, at home or, most recently, at the skating rink.  She is sometimes light sensitive before the "attack".  She will almost always have rapid breathing in the top of here lungs and there is sometimes a slight wheezing when she exhails.  She is usually "out" 4-6 times before I she starts to come to herself.  The past couple of times I have given her her quick working asthmas medicine and this seems to help her. She starts breathing normally but she is pale and very tired afterwards. This is not easy to get her to take however, as she is having so much trouble breathing that she is unable to use the inhaler.
She has had an MRI that turned out normal and we have had her asthma tested again with the same result - everything normal.

Is this an asthma attack? Is it epilepsy? Or is it anxiety?

[hamzasco]

Well its very serious when it comes to loss of conciousness. Yes asthma does cause fainting that is mostly for chronic asthmatic patients. To my knowledge these are asthma
symptoms.

She should get a doctor to check her as soon as possible, for me am an asthmatic patient and had asthma as a result of me playing outside in a very sandy and dusty playground that was back in my elimentary school.

Check out for the asthmatic symptoms such as dust, cold places or areas, and stress and so on.

[Sunny602]

I agree with caregiver...losing consciousness like that warrants immediate help with a thorough examination by a doctor and observation. It could be anything...cardiac, pulmonary or even a siezure as you mentioned, either way, she needs a proper diagnosis of what is causing these blackouts. so that she can receive the correct treatment as well.  To my knowledge, asthma does not cause this but I am not a doctor. Please demand further testing ,something has got to be causing this. I pray that you get answers soon...Sunny

[caregiver222]

Any loss of consciousness is a life threatening emergency. It is not something to "self-treat" with "quick wqorking inhalers", and then not go to a hospital. She neeeds an IMMEDIATE evaluation by a team of physicians, preferably including a pulmonary specialist and cardiologist. All of that being said there is a high probability she has a problem that can be treated easily that will not impact her life significantly, but there is a slim chance the next episode could result in death, or worse still injury, or cumulative brain damage secondary to anoxia. You have a problem that must be addressed by an M.D. A loss of consciousness is grounds for immediate admission and 24 hour observation in any hospital I have known.