Autonomic dysfunction and chronic disease.

Introduction: The majority of chronic diseases are accompanied by symptoms of more or less pronounced dysautonomia, which frequently and noticeably deteriorate the quality of patients' life.

Sources of data: Pubmed.

Areas of agreement: Functional disorders in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) require very precise diagnostics; frequently involving several specialists and a number of diagnostic tests.

Areas of controversy: Dysautonomia symptoms are of a very discrete nature and may develop much earlier than symptoms specific for a given chronic disease, significantly influencing the treatment process itself.

Growing points: ANS dysfunctions should be considered at each stage of the diagnostic and treatment processes, as a predictor for the patient's clinical condition.

Areas timely for developing research: Many researchers indicate that a decrease in dysautonomia intensity has a direct effect on the progress of the underlying disease and undoubtedly contributes to the improvement of the general health condition or to symptoms remission.