| ||Minding Your Mind || | Anxiety and Heart Disease -- What's
the Connection? November 23, 2012 By Michael Craig Miller, M.D.
Harvard Medical School There is a well-known link between major
depression and heart disease. People with heart disease are more
likely to suffer from depression than otherwise healthy people.
Angina and heart attacks are closely linked with depression.
However, much less is known about how anxiety affects the heart.
Various studies have found that 3 out of 10 patients with heart
disease have symptoms of anxiety. Moreover, severe anxiety,
which may appear as a panic attack, can mimic a heart attack.
Sudden onset of fear or terror in conjunction with heart
palpitations or chest pain Gradual onset (over several minutes)
of pain, pressure, and/or tightness in chest and upper body Pain
and discomfort tend to occur in the center of the chest Pain may
occur in center of chest but may also radiate to upper body
(arms, shoulders, or jaw) Chest pain and other symptoms subside
after 5 to 30 min