A Study of Prevalence of Anxiety in Patients with Cardiac Disorders

Background: Anxiety is commonly experienced among patients with cardiovascular disease. Psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, represent an additional risk for cardiovascular disease besides contributing to impaired functions. To date, depression has received the most attention in the population, given its high prevalence and association with poor cardiac health, especially in patients who have experienced a major cardiac event, such as an Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). However, anxiety has recently emerged as another important psychological construct that is highly prevalent, frequently co-occurs with depression and impedes response to depression treatment, and may ultimately influence the course of cardiovascular disease independent of depression. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of anxiety among patients diagnosed with cardiac disorders. Methods: A cross sectional study was done among 100 cardiac patients. A self-designed semi structured questionnaire consisting of demographic details, relevant cardiac and psychiatric history and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale was used. The obtained data was entered in MSexcel and analysed using SPSS software. Results: 43% patients were recognised to have anxiety. Among them 21% had mild anxiety, 12% had moderate anxiety and 10% had severe anxiety. A significant association of 0.002 was found in females having cardiac illness. A significant association of 0.043 was found between coronary artery disease and anxiety. Conclusion: These analyses confirm that anxiety is associated in patients with cardiac disorders; however, this relationship is not as strong as that of depression and may be explained partly by other clinical factors