Patients with heart disease who suffer from anxiety face a significantly increased risk of further illness, researchers warned last night.
The finding is the latest to seek to tease out the link between mental stress and heart disease.
Researchers admitted that other research has proved conflicting.
The study of more than 1,000 Dutch patients found a near 50 per cent increase in the risk of heart patients with anxiety suffering major illness, such as stroke, heart failure, death or a heart attack.
The patients in the research were defined as having stable blood disease – but 9.6 per cent of those with anxiety disorders suffered major illness each year. There were 106 of these patients.
The rate of major disease was 6.6 per cent amongst others, according to the findings, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Researcher Dr Elisabeth Martens, of Tilburg University, said it was possible that anxious patients were simply more likely than others to seek care for illness – and so to have heart attack or stroke diagnosed.
Calling for more research, she said: "Evaluation and treatment of anxiety may also be considered as part of the comprehensive management of patients with coronary heart disease."
The British Heart Foundation said the relationship was "very complex" and called for more research.
Senior nurse Judy O’Sullivan said: "We know that people with heart disease are often anxious about their future and about how their lives, and the lives of those closest to them, will be affected by the disease.
"Now we need to spend more time and money understanding the links between poor mental health and heart disease so that services aimed at helping those affected by both can be as effective as possible."
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67[7]:750-758
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