Anxiety Ups Death Risk in Heart Failure Patients

Stressed-out had double the odds for poor outcomes, study found.

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, May 14, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

MONDAY, May 14 (HealthDay News) -- Anxiety poses a real threat to the heart, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed 516 people with coronary artery disease for an average of more than three years, found that those who scored in the highest third on standard tests of anxiety had nearly double the risk of heart attack or death compared to those in the lowest third.

"It would be ideal now to see whether if we did something about it [anxiety], would that have an impact on prognosis. That has never been done before," said study author Dr. Charles M. Blatt, director of research at the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation in Boston.

It's also unclear what kind of intervention -- drug treatment or counseling -- would work best, he added.

"But, even if we don't have evidence that intervening would be helpful, it makes so much common sense if you say that when anxiety is alleviated, the patient does better," Blatt said. "If the patient is allowed time to explain his or her anxieties, that would be helpful. But from a scientific point of view, I can't tell you with great assurance that if anxiety is alleviated, we do better with symptoms. We are trying to answer in a scientific way if there is benefit to be derived."

The findings will be published in the May 22 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In the study, people completed weekly questionnaires, answering such questions as whether they felt peaceful, whether they took a long time to fall asleep at night, or had upset bowels or stomach.

Every one-point increase in the anxiety score was associated with a 6 percent increase in the risk of death or heart attack in the study, Blatt noted.

The initial results of the study, based on a first test of anxiety, were not especially revealing, Blatt said. But, "the cumulative score -- how it developed over time, increasing or declining -- made a substantial difference in outcome," he said.

Those who started out highly anxious but later found more inner calm reduced their risk markedly, the researchers found.