Panic Attacks Linked to Heart Risk in Women -- Symptoms Might Be Undiagnosed Problem

Oct 03, 08:42 AM

Current Headlines: By Carla K Johnson

CHICAGO - The rapid pulse and shortness of breath of a panic attack can feel like a heart attack, and it may signal heart trouble down the road, a study of more than 3,000 older women suggests.

Women who reported at least one full-blown panic attack during a six-month period were three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke over the next five years than women who didn't report a panic attack.

The researchers took into account other risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, inactivity and depression and still found that panic attacks raised risk.

The findings add panic attacks to a list of mental health issues - depression, fear, hostility and anxiety - already linked in previous research to heart problems, said study co-author Dr. Jordan Smoller of Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.

"Postmenopausal women who are experiencing panic attacks may be a subgroup with elevated risk," Smoller said. "Monitoring them and reducing their cardiovascular risk may be important."

The study, published in Monday's Archives of General Psychiatry, wasn't designed to explain the link, Smoller said. He speculated that a panic attack may trigger heart rhythm problems or that stress hormones released during an attack may harm the heart.

The findings don't surprise Susie Rissler, 51, of Terre Haute, Ind. A panic attack sufferer since childhood, she's also has had three mini-strokes.

"You feel like the whole world is caving in," Rissler said of her panic attacks, which can include a racing heartbeat and chest pains. "I've had shaking, sweating, curling up in a ball totally afraid to even look around. Panic attacks can really destroy a person in a lot of different ways."

Some of the reported panic symptoms may have been heart problems in disguise, Smoller said. Symptoms such as racing heart, chest pain or shortness of breath, experienced as a panic attack, may have been caused by an undiagnosed heart problem.

The study, which enrolled women from 1997-2000 and followed them for five years, was funded by the drug company Glaxo Wellcome, which is now GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The company makes Paxil, an anti- anxiety drug. Some of the study's co-authors reported financial ties to that company and others.

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Depression

Talk therapy best for teen sufferers

A talking cure for depression called cognitive behavior therapy appears to cancel the risk of suicidal thinking or behavior associated with taking antidepressant medication, according to the most comprehensive and long-running study to date of depression treatment among adolescents.

Details

The study, which followed for a year more than 600 adolescents being treated for chronic depression, found that four in five recovered entirely, or nearly so, when treated over nine months with medication, talk therapy or a combination of the two.

Patients taking medication showed significant signs of improvement up to six weeks earlier than those who received talk therapy alone, but were about twice as likely to report feeling suddenly suicidal. The combination of the two therapies, the authors found, produced the most rapid recovery and protected against sudden suicidal urges.

For several years experts have been debating the risks to children and adolescents who take antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil. many psychiatrists say has been blown out of proportion.

- New York Times

What it feels like

Symptoms of a panic attack include:

Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate

Sweating

Trembling or shaking

Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering

Feeling of choking

Chest pain or discomfort

Nausea or abdominal distress

Feelings of "unreality" or being detached from oneself

Fear of losing control or going crazy

Fear of dying

Numbness or tingling

Chills or hot flushes

Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

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Originally published by Carla K. Johnson Associated Press .

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