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Does Anxiety Affect Survival in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease? J Clin Med 2023; 12:jcm12062098. [PMID: 36983102 PMCID: PMC10052991 DOI: 10.3390/jcm12062098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2023] [Revised: 02/18/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Behavioral and physiological risk factors worsen the prognosis of coronary heart disease (CHD). Anxiety is known to be a psychological predictor of CHD. In this study, we investigated whether this factor is associated with all-cause mortality in CHD patients in the long term. Methods: We studied 180 patients (mean age 60.6 SD 9.2 years, 26% women) with CHD from the Berlin Anxiety Trial (BAT) and the Stepwise Psychotherapy Intervention for Reducing Risk in Coronary Artery Disease (SPIRR-CAD) study. Their cardiac and psychological risk profile was represented by standardized procedures, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire. Mortality outcomes were assessed using a community-based registry. Results: Of 180 patients, we obtained information on all-cause mortality in 175 (96.7%) after a mean follow-up of 12.2 years (range 10.4–16.6 years). Of all participants, 54.4% had prior myocardial infarction, 95.3% had percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and 22.2% had prior coronary artery bypass graft. Most of the patients (98.4%) had New York Heart Association class I and II, 25.6% had diabetes and 38.2% were smokers. Patients had a mean HADS anxiety score of 9.7 SD 4.1 at study entrance. We found the highest HADS anxiety quartile all-cause mortality in 14%, 30.2% in the middle quartiles and 58.7% in the lowest quartile (chi2 20.8, p = 0.001). Related to psychological mechanisms, a low level of anxiety, seemed to be a significant predictor of all-cause mortality. We found no advantage for patients who had received psychosocial therapy in terms of survival. Conclusion: These first data confirmed our hypothesis about the association of psychological risk factors with the long-term outcome of CAD patients. Future studies will clarify whether the severity of disease, age or a particular type of coping or denial mechanism are associated with the presented outcome in low-anxious patients.
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Special Issue "Mental Health Issues and Quality of Life in Older Individuals". Life (Basel) 2021; 11:life11030221. [PMID: 33801888 PMCID: PMC8001377 DOI: 10.3390/life11030221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
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