Girl's Nonstop Sneezing Baffles Doctors

March 2, 2007 — -- Last month, Brooke Owens of Asheville, N.C., began sneezing.

And she continued to sneeze nonstop for three weeks straight.

In what her doctors have dubbed a "medical mystery," Owens' sneezing spell has defied diagnosis time and time again. Doctors have ruled out allergies and neurological disorders.

But even though the cause remains unknown, her family says episodes have come and gone for about two years.

The condition has had profound effects on Owens' day-to-day life. At the height of this most recent bout, her sneezing became so bad that she had to be home-schooled.

Fortunately, for most of us, sneezing is an occasional inconvenience. But for others, like Owens, the impact of uncontrolled, repetitive sneezing can take a dramatic toll on daily activities.

And for many, the possible health impacts are nothing to sneeze at, either.

For most of us, a sneeze is just a sneeze.

However, Dr. Clifford Bassett, an otolaryngology specialist at the Long Island College Hospital of Brooklyn, says there are many different varieties of sneezes, each of which may hint at the possible root causes of the affliction.

The monikers of these subtypes are evocative, to say the least -- the "trumpet sneeze," the "big, bad wolf sneeze," the "cartoon sneeze."

In most cases, he says, occasional bouts of sneezing are nothing to worry about. Bassett says any time there is irritation to the nasal mucosa -- the tender inner lining of the nasal passages -- the body's natural reaction is to sneeze.

"It's a protective reflex," he says. "In general, sneezing is a good thing."

As for Owens, Bassett classifies her condition as a case of what he calls "machine gun" sneezing. As the name implies, this variant involves a staccato series of sneezes, one right after the other.

In most cases, such sneezing is not terribly atypical.

"It's a phenomenon that is not uncommon," he says. "But in this patient's case, it lasted for three weeks, which makes it very unusual and interesting."