Panic attacks may raise heart risks

The rapid pulse and shortness of breath of a panic attack can feel like a heart attack, and it may signal heart trouble down the road, a study of more than 3,000 older women suggests.

Women who reported at least one full-blown panic attack during a six-month period were three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke over the next five years than women who didn’t report a panic attack.

The researchers took into account other risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, inactivity and depression and still found that panic attacks raised risk.

The findings add panic attacks to a list of mental health issues -- depression, fear, hostility and anxiety -- already linked in previous research to heart problems, said study coauthor Dr. Jordan Smoller of Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital.

The study was published in the Oct. 1 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. Smoller speculated that a panic attack may trigger heart rhythm problems or that stress hormones released during an attack may harm the heart.