Many people have felt a small lump in throat feeling at some point of life. It feels like cluster of hair or any debris is blocking the throat. Sometimes, the feeling of lump would be felt like a small sized tennis ball stuffed well inside the throat. You may feel like that your tie has suddenly become tight or someone is strangulating your throat. This sort of feeling occurs when the individual is in high rate of stress or in high anxiety or tension. Almost 95% of the affected person will have sort of neurotic or psychiatric problem. Only in rare phenomenon lump in throat feeling occurs due to organic disease.
Some people feel the presence of foreign particle in the throat and they would actually try to eliminate it by repeated coughing or choking. It is based on the perception of ideas and the affected person may suffocate or choke badly due to built-in pressure in the throat. People who are depressed state of mind or those who are taking treatment for hysteria would also feel these symptoms.
Strangely the lump in throat feeling does not occur permanently and it comes and goes randomly. In medical terms this feeling is caused by the underlying problem of “globus hystericus” wherein the affected person will have difficulty in swallowing food or even saliva.
Causes :
As stated earlier, lump in throat feeling is of psychological origin many times. People who exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia, hysteria, depression, anxiety and neurosis have this type of feeling.
This problem also occurs due to the factors like neck disease, chronic inflammation of respiratory tract, throat cancer and GERD (a disease of gastro esophageal type).
Symptoms :
There are many signs felt by the affected person apart from lump in the throat. Some of the important symptoms are dryness and itchy feeling in the throat, difficulty in breathing, heartburn, problems in eating and drinking, acidity formation, intense throat pain. Many healthy people will get scared of impending throat cancer when they have the above symptoms.
Throat pain is not felt continuously if the feeling is associated with psychological type. It may occur randomly and become worse when the person gets tensed.
People with organic disease like narrowing of larynges will have difficulty in eating and swallowing saliva. They would have problems in breathing due to blockage in the throat. People with GERD problem will have moderate to severe heartburn when excess of acid is forced upwards from the stomach.
Many signs of psychological origin will be absent in the mornings and will get worse during the course of the day. When there is disturbance in the normal contraction and relaxation of the value present in the esophagus it can create spasms and tightness. And stress and anxiety will worsen the problem.
Diagnoses :
Your physician will examine the throat to rule out any serious problem. If needed, he may conduct a CT scan or esophageal endoscopy or sometimes MRI scan for ascertaining the disease.
Treatment :
In case lump in throat is due to stress or anxiety then the patient will be put to comfort by giving a shot of valium for relaxing the muscle. After he feels better, he would be given warm fluids. Your doctor will constantly monitor the symptoms and give medications depending on the factor that causes the ill-feeling of lump in throat. Throat irritation can be managed by giving anti histamines and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Valium is given orally or in the form of injection for managing muscle spasms that cause lump feeling.
If the problem is due to throat cancer or tumor in the throat, then your doctor will give suitable therapy for controlling the symptoms. For controlling the symptoms of physical nature, then the doctor will give antidepressants for controlling the brain signals that causes pain and stress.
In case if the problem is of psychological origin the patient will be given counseling and regular relaxation therapy.