Panic attacks and health

An American study of 3,369 women between the ages of 51 and 83 has found that those who experienced at least one full-blown panic attack had an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke within the next five years. At the start of the study the women filled out a questionnaire about the occurence of panic attacks in the previous six months. The women were then monitored for fivc years to see which of them had heart attacks, strokes or died of other causes. After allowing for other risk factors having one or more panic attacks was associated with four times the risk of myocardial infarction, three times the risk of heart attack or stroke and twice the risk of death from any cause.