Worried (Heart) Sick? How Anxiety Triggers Heart Ills

July 6, 2010 -- Deanna Pierott ended up in the hospital twice last year after she experienced tightness in her chest, shortness of breath and a light sweat.

In both cases, she originally suspected a heart attack, but fortunately this was not the case.

Her diagnosis? Anxiety.

"I even had an angiogram, but they didn't find anything wrong with my heart. They said it was anxiety," Pierott said. "My doctors told me to slow down, and advised me to do things to try and calm down," she added.

Despite both her cardiac scares, Pierott said her doctors have not found any evidence of coronary heart disease -- at least not yet.

But a group of researchers found a very strong association between generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, and the occurrence of cardiovascular events such as strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and death.

The researchers looked at patients who experienced chest pain and other symptoms when they exerted themselves and engaged in certain other activities -- a condition known as stable coronary heart disease.

They found that people who had this type of heart disease, plus GAD, had a higher rate of cardiovascular events than did patients who did not suffer from GAD. The findings also showed that risk factors for heart disease such as smoking, physical inactivity and skipping meds did not play a role in the greater number of cardiovascular events.

In short, these findings suggest, GAD can predict whether people with stable coronary heart disease will have a stroke, heart attack or other serious heart problem. While an association between anxiety disorders and heart disease has long been suspected, doctors say this study is unique.

"It looks at something as specific as generalized anxiety disorder, which is a very specific and new correlation," said Dr. Sudeepta Varma, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Dr. Una McCann, associate professor of psychiatry at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, believes a study like this one is long overdue.

"Many patients with depression and anxiety are only diagnosed with depression, even when anxiety is the more prominent symptom," she said. "Anxiety is often viewed as less important. As a result, it is underdiagnosed (or misdiagnosed) and understudied."