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Anxiety increases death risk among heart disease patients

Written by: QMI Agency
Mar. 20, 2013

(Fotolia)

Heart disease patients with anxiety have double the risk of dying, a new study says.

Worse yet, the risk of death triples for patients with anxiety and depression, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Previous studies have shown that depression is three times more common in heart attack patients. But less studied is the impact of anxiety — which is common among depressed heart disease patients.

"It's now time for anxiety to be considered as important as depression, and for it to be examined carefully," said lead author Lana Watkins, an associate professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

The study looked at 934 heart disease patients and found 90 of them had anxiety, 65 had depression and 99 had both ailments. Of the 133 patients who died within three years of followup, 55 had anxiety, depression or both.

Watkins says future studies should test ways to manage anxiety alone and with depression in heart disease patients.

 

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