This conceptual review outlines the clinical syndrome of cardiophobia, presenting a model based on heart-focused anxiety and interoceptive conditioning to guide future assessment and treatment.
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May aid recognition of cardiophobia in unexplained cardiac symptoms; leaves open empirical validation of the proposed model.
Cardiophobia, a clinical syndrome that affects hundreds of thousands of individuals in the USA, is characterized by abrupt, recurrent sensations and pain in the chest in the absence of physical pathology. This conceptual article seeks to address the significance of cardiophobia in western culture and to distinguish it from related disorders. In addition, a model of cardiophobia that highlights the role of heart-focused anxiety and interoceptive conditioning in the generation of limited-symptom panic attacks and acute chest pain is presented and vulnerability factors for cardiophobia are discussed. Future research directions relevant to the assessment and treatment of this clinically significant phenomenon are reviewed.
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Zvolensky et al. (2008) studied this question.
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