Causes of vegetative-vascular dystonia

The most significant causes of vegetative-vascular dystonia are disorders of a healthy lifestyle and, first of all, low physical activity, prolonged (more than 3-6 hours) work on the computer and watching TV, alcohol abuse, toxic and drug addiction, leading to destabilization of the autonomic nervous system with the formation of vegetative-vascular dystonia. Development of vegetative-vascular dystonia is promoted by chronic foci of infection, hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome, osteochondrosis, syncopal conditions. A major role in the development of vegetative-vascular dystonia belongs to a hereditary heredity of arterial hypertension, other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, especially the presence of these diseases in parents under the age of 55 years. The negative influence is exerted both by excessive and insufficient body weight, as well as by excessive consumption of salt.

Classification of vegetative-vascular dystonia

There is no generally accepted classification of vegetative-vascular dystonia. Depending on the predominant clinical manifestation of vegetative-vascular dystonia (disorders of cardiac activity or regulation of arterial blood pressure with pathological increase or decrease), V.P. Nikitin (1962) and N.N. Savitsky (1964) proposed to distinguish three of its types: cardiac, hypertensive and hypotensive. However, not all clinicians consider this classification to reflect the real number and essence of clinico-pathogenetic variants of vegetative-vascular dystonia, and the very possibility of their reflection in the direction of changes in arterial pressure is discerned. With vegeto-vascular dystonia, complaints of patients with high and low blood pressure often coincide, which indicates the commonness of leading circulatory disorders that are causally unrelated to changes in arterial pressure, which only integrally reflect abnormalities in systemic hemodynamics.

IN AND. Makolkin, S.A. Abakumov (1985) proposed a working classification of vegetative-vascular dystonia, indicating the leading etiological factor, the main clinical syndromes and the severity of the course of the disease.

• Etiology:
  • psychogenic (neurotic);
  • infectious-toxic;
  • dyshormonal;
  • physical overstrain;
  • mixed;
  • Essential (constitutionally hereditary);
  • physical and occupational factors.
• Syndrome:
  • cardial;
  • tachycardia;
  • hyperkinetic;
  • asthenic;
  • astheno-neurotic;
  • vegetative vascular dystonia;
  • respiratory disorders;
  • myocardial dystrophy.
• Heaviness:
  • light:
  • average;
  • heavy.

At the same time, it should be recognized that the classification of V.P. Nikitin (1962) and N.N. Savitsky (1964) was widely used. It is used mainly because of its simplicity, and also because among the patients with vegetative-vascular dystonia of each type, however, the prevailing groups with a certain common manifestation of the disease and their pathogenesis still appear.

[1], [2], [3]