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Anxiety appears to increase the risk of heart attacks and death in patients with coronary artery disease, say researchers from the United States.
Coronary artery disease is caused when plaque builds up on the walls of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart, causing them to harden and narrow. This can lead to heart attack, angina (chest pain) and other serious complications.
The few studies that have examined the role of anxiety in heart disease have usually measured anxiety only once, not over time, according to a report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
In this study by Harvard Medical School, 516 patients with heart disease were followed for an average of 3.4 years. During the study period, there were 44 non-fatal heart attacks and 19 deaths.
A high cumulative anxiety score was associated with a higher risk of both heart attack and death from any cause, whereas the initial anxiety score was not. Subjects with average anxiety scores in the highest 25 per cent were nearly twice as likely to die as those with scores in the lowest 25 per cent.
Each unit increase in the anxiety score increased the odds of non-fatal heart attack or death by 6 per cent.
- REUTERS