Anxiety, depression, and general trait negative affectivity emerged as independent risk factors for premature heart disease and recurrence or mortality in patients with existing heart disease.
Do negative affective dispositions (anger, anxiety, depression) increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in healthy individuals and those with existing heart disease?
Anxiety, depression, and general trait negative affectivity are independent risk factors for incident heart disease and worse outcomes in patients with existing heart disease.
Three negative affective dispositions—anger, anxiety, and depression—are hypothesized to increase physical disease risk and have been the subject of epidemiological studies. However, the overlap among the major negative affective dispositions, and the superordinate construct of trait negative affectivity (NA) are only beginning to be tested. Presented here is a narrative review of recent prospective studies that simultaneously tested anger, anxiety, depression, and trait NA as risk factors for cardiac outcomes. Anxiety and depression emerged as independent risk factors for premature heart disease in population studies of persons nominally healthy at baseline, and for recurrence/mortality among patients with existing heart disease. General trait NA also was a cardiac risk factor in population samples.
Jerry Suls (Fri,) conducted a review in Cardiovascular Disease. Anger, anxiety, depression, and trait negative affectivity was evaluated on Cardiac outcomes (premature heart disease, recurrence, or mortality). Anxiety, depression, and general trait negative affectivity emerged as independent risk factors for premature heart disease and recurrence or mortality in patients with existing heart disease.