Panic disorder and cardiovascular death: What is beneath?

Abstract

Considering extensive overlap among symptoms of panic disorder (PD) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the fact that so little attention has been drawn to studies addressing the relationship between both so far is somewhat intriguing. Therefore, this chapter will focus on the issue considering several perspectives. It starts delineating an historical background, showing that the interest on studying the relationship between anxiety symptoms and CVD began more than a century ago. Next, epidemiological research is reviewed, but considering lack of consistent findings, anxiety disorders and, more specifically, PD are deconstructed. Not only this, but biological mechanisms that could link anxiety symptoms and CVD, such as pleiotropy, heart rate variability, unhealthy lifestyle and atherosclerosis, are also explored. The chapter ends highlighting the importance of reversibility, that is, if PD and CVD are somewhat connected, intervention studies should prove the utility of prevention. As can be seen, the text is constructed using an epistemological perspective, since it constitutes a major area of indagation and research of the authors and is meant to raise the same sort of questioning in the readers.