ANXIETY EARLY AFTER MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION ASSOCIATED WITH SUBSEQUENT ISCHEMIC AND ARRHYTHMIC EVENTS

Objective: Acute myocardial infarction is often accompanied by anxiety , but the effect of this emotion on recovery is unclear. The purpose o f this study was to determine the association between patient anxiety early after acute myocardial infarction and the incidence of subsequen t in-hospital complications. Methods: We assessed anxiety level within 48 hours of patient arrival at the hospital in 86 confirmed myocardia l infarction patients. Anxiety was measured using the Brief Symptom In ventory. Myocardial infarction complications were defined as reinfarct ion, new onset ischemia, ventricular fibrillation, sustained ventricul ar tachycardia, or in-hospital death. Results: More complications were seen in patients with higher versus lower levels of anxiety (19.6% vs 6%; p=.001). Multiple logistic regression was used to control for tho se clinical and sociodemographic factors that can influence the incide nce of complications and demonstrated that higher anxiety level was in dependently predictive of complications. Patients with higher anxiety levels were 4.9 times (p=.001) more likely to have subsequent complica tions. Conclusions: Anxiety early after myocardial infarction onset is associated with increased risk of ischemic and arrhythmic complicatio ns. This finding suggests that anxiety should be considered among the conventional risk factors for in-hospital acute myocardial infarction complications.