If anxiety disorders are bad enough, what more for those who suffer it with heart diseases? Anxiety disorders are strongly linked with higher risks of heart complications such as heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, even death. Results of this study are published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The numbers are high. About 24 to 31 percent of heart disease patients also suffer from anxiety attacks. Study authors find that there’s so much literature about depression and coronary heart
diseases, though lacking in anxiety and how it can influence cardiovascular events.

The study was conducted in Tilburg, the Netherlands, as researchers headed by Elisabeth J. Martens Ph.D. sampled over 1,000 outpatients suffering from coronary heart disease and were noted to
have general anxiety disorders. Presence of the latter was verified using computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedules.

Researchers, after a 5.6 year follow up, discovered that more than 350 cardiovascular incidents were reported on these sampled outpatients. It was found out that 10 in every 106 participants
diagnosed with general anxiety disorders reported yearly cardiovascular incidents. It was later revealed that those patients who had generalized anxiety disorders have 74% elevated risks of
encountering either a heart attack or stroke.

Given the strong association of general anxiety disorders to heart complications, authors try to investigate further. They suggest that anxiety may in turn causes the catecholamine spikes associated
with the fight or flight hormones responsible for the cardiovascular event.

Researchers further recommend that for cardiovascular risks to be reduced, it will be necessary to treat the general anxiety first. This will further improve patient care considering that more evidence are currently being gathered linking anxiety to mortality in the aspect of heart complications.