Hi I have passed out since an early age, which was always considered to be stress related, at the dentist, early in the morning before an exam, during a class and when exercising. Once as a student nurse I passed out in the hospital corridor, my assessor thought it looked like epilepsy so I saw a neurologist, who diagnosed vasovagal syncope. This continued, and once more was referred back to neurology with the same result, being advised that it was quite common and not to worry. During this time I suffered periodically with depression and anxiety which was not totally unrelated to the blackouts and their effect on my life, but found antidepressants increased the frequency of the syncope.
An older brother also suffered from blackouts which had increased in number and whilst at the dentist had difficulty coming round with an asystole of fifteen seconds, which resulted in a pacemaker being fitted and a diagnosis post tilt test of carotid hypersensitivity.
Armed with this knowledge I requested a referral to cardiology following a blackout whilst painting. I was offered the opportunity to have a loop recorder implanted in my pectoral muscle as they had no idea of why the blackouts occurred and all other tests were normal echocardiogram, ecg, etc. The result that evening was that I felt nauseous and passed out during the same night. After going to A&E, the recording from the loop recorder was downloaded and showed a 21 second asystole. I was admitted to Acute Cardiology and a pacemaker was fitted the following morning. Whilst the reason for admission was a 21 second asystole, the cause was given as being an exagerrated vasovagal response. After reading some of the other responses I have a suspicion that whilst the vasovagal response is very common there is little understanding of it's mechanism of action and the effect on a person's overall health and wellbeing.