March 22, 2001 – According to observational research that spanned 20 years, obsession and anxiety significantly increase the risk of dying from a heart attack. This research, published recently in the medical journal Heart, was carried out on 1408 men aged 40 to 64, without any history of infarction. The participants, who were recruited between 1972 and 1978, filled out a questionnaire (the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index) intended to measure their levels of anxiety, obsession and accompanying physical symptoms.
Between 1978 and 1997, 127 of the research participants died of myocardial infarction, better known by its popular name of “heart attack”.
After all the adjustments for age, social class, and cardiovascular risk factors, researchers led by Dr. Richard Haines found that every one point increase in the obsession index or index physical symptoms of anxiety resulted in an 8% increase in the relative risk of having a fatal heart attack. Likewise, when the obsessive anxiety index increased by one point, the risk of having a fatal heart attack increased by 7%.
The researchers cannot explain why this is so, but hypothesize that anxious men react to the stress and pain of a heart attack in a way that increases their risk of dying.
HealthPassport.net
Haines A, Cooper J, Meade TW. Psychological characteristics and fatal ischaemic heart disease. Heart. 2001 Apr; 85 (4): 385-9.
