Cardiovascular symptoms in coronary-artery disease patients are strongly correlated with emotional distress.

BACKGROUND

The relationship of cardiovascular events and cardiovascular symptoms is unclear, and physical symptoms, including most cardiovascular symptoms, are known to be influenced by emotional distress.

OBJECTIVE

Authors examined the relative strength of association of multiple measures of emotional distress and accepted cardiac risk factors with five common cardiac symptoms (chest pain, fatigue, palpitations, presyncope, and dyspnea).

METHOD: The authors tested the association of multiple cardiovascular symptoms with various measures of emotional distress (i.e., the scales of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) and the putative risk factors for disease status in 109 patients with documented coronary artery disease.

RESULTS

Measures of emotional distress were stronger correlates of patient-rated distress due to the symptoms than were traditional risk factors.

CONCLUSION

Treatment of emotional distress may be a viable strategy for symptom-control in cardiovascular disease.