Tuesday, 28 October 2008 13:12

Amid worldwide financial uncertainty comes new Canadian research linking chronic anxiety with a fourfold increased risk for high blood pressure.

The Montreal researchers say it's possible anxiety disorders cause changes in how blood vessels and the heart's pumping chamber function.

About 12% of the population suffers an anxiety disorder. People experience intense fear and stress out of proportion to the actual threat or danger, says Simon Bacon, a Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher at the Montreal Heart Institute. Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety -- exaggerated worry about everyday things -- panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobia.

Questions on an anxiety scale include, 'I feel tense or wound up," or "I get a sort of frightened feeling, as if something awful is about to happen." Feeling this way most, or a lot of the time, "is probably indicative of an anxiety disorder," Bacon says.

Many people are worried about the economic downturn.

"It's an appropriate level of anxiety," Bacon says. But the current financial crisis may be enough to trigger an anxiety disorder in vulnerable individuals, doctors say.

The study, to be presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto, involved 185 patients, average age 58, with no previous history of high blood pressure. Sixteen per cent had an anxiety disorder; 14% had depression or other mood disorder.

After one year, 14% of those with an anxiety disorder had developed high blood pressure,

compared to four per cent who were anxiety free. Elevated blood pressure is a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

Patients with mood disorders were not at higher risk of hypertension.

"We all know that anxiety, sudden stress, earthquakes, 9/11, will all cause the blood pressure to rise temporarily," says Dr. Brian Baker, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a psychiatrist who treats patients with cardiovascular disorders. "The question is, will it stay raised over time?"

This is one of the few studies linking an emotional state with persistent hypertension.

"One of the things about anxiety is that it has a very, very pronounced physiological effect," Bacon says. "You tend to have an increase in heart rate, palpitations, people feel sweaty. Obviously the body is reacting to that."

"We need to identify those people who have anxiety disorders because clearly they're at higher risk. The goods news is, there are lots of very good treatments out there. It's at treatable disorder."

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