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NEW YORK, Mar 15 (Reuters Health) - People who exhibit traits of obsession such as over-conscientiousness or excessive cleanliness may also be more likely to die from ischemic heart disease, results of a 20-year study suggest.
During the study period, 127 individuals died of heart disease, according to Dr. Andrew Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his colleagues. These individuals were more likely than survivors to have reported high levels of obsession and anxiety symptoms at the beginning of the study, the authors report in the March issue of the journal Heart.
For example, individuals who rated their level of obsession as 8-9 on a scale of 0-16 were almost three times as likely to die from heart disease than their peers who rated themselves as 0-3. The association remained even after the investigators took known risk factors for heart disease death into consideration such as cholesterol and blood pressure levels, cigarette smoking, and body mass.
Phobic anxieties, such as fear of enclosed spaces or fear of heights, were associated with death from heart disease only in the first 10 years of the follow-up, the report indicates.
"We are not sure of the mechanism of the associations although it is known that emotions can affect the heart rate and cause constriction of arteries which might affect blood flow to the heart in certain circumstances," Haines told Reuters Health in an interview.
The authors hypothesize, however, "that men with high levels of obsessionality or somatic symptoms of anxiety react to the pain and stress of a coronary event in ways that increase their risk of dying."
No women were included in the analysis, however, so Haines is "unable to say whether the results apply to women. This would be a topic for further study."
Haines offers some advice for the anxious and obsessive: "there is an effective psychological intervention for obsessional thoughts and for people who have high levels of physical symptoms of anxiety--this is cognitive behavior therapy and is widely used by clinical psychologists. (While) we cannot be sure that this will prevent heart attacks (since) no one has done a study for that purpose, but this type of therapy can improve symptoms."
Study participants included about 1,400 white middle-aged males who had no prior history of heart disease.
SOURCE: Heart 2001;85:385-389.
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