Hyperventilation will either calm down or pass out.....asthma can kill. Yes it is good to go the psycological route of calming them down but a true asthma attack is a pysiological event where the bronchioles narrow. Some patients require Rx intervention to open them up.

With hyperventilation you will have the 'panicky looking' patient. What I mean by that is they are anxious and panicky but have good color and their respirations are not labored. They will be breathing at a rate of 40 per minute plus. Usually they have tingling in their hands, feet and around their mouth. They will have (sometimes severe) cramping in their hands.

An asthmatic will be anxious because they CAN'T breathe. They can sometimes be heard wheezing even without a stethescope. They may even be turning blue. We have a list of questions that we ask them and the further down the list we get then the more critical the situation could be.