In the past, I have discussed the recovery period during stress test. Every cardiologist must wait for five minutes after finishing stress test because abnormalities could occur during this period. Similarly in history taking, the type of recovery after an attack of fainting is very useful in throwing light on the cause; for example:

1. If the recovery to consciousness is very rapid and more or less instantaneous, chances are the patient has cardiac syncope though pulmonary embolism can also behave like this.
2. If the recovery takes 1-2 minutes and during this time the patient has nausea, sweats or is feeling unwell, then the likely cause is neuro-cardiogenic syncope.
3. Finally, if the patient takes 5-10 minutes to recover and nobody has witnessed the attack of unconsciousness, the most likely cause is neurological, like an attack of seizure.