![\"News](\"https:\/\/media.healthday.com\/Images\/icimages\/FAC089MH.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
FRIDAY, Aug. 21, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
If you suffer from heart failure<\/a>, try to stay calm. Stress<\/a> and anger may make your condition worse, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n Mental stress<\/a> is common in heart<\/a> failure patients due to the complexities of managing the disease, progressively worsening function, and frequent medical issues and hospitalizations, according to lead author Kristie Harris, a postdoctoral associate in cardiovascular medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.<\/p>\n “We have evidence that patients who experience chronically elevated levels of stress<\/a> experience a more burdensome disease course with diminished quality of life and increased risk for adverse events,” Harris said in a university news release.<\/p>\n “Clarifying the relevant behavioral and physiological pathways is especially important in the era of COVID-19<\/a> when the typical stressors of heart failure<\/a> may be further compounded by pandemic-related stressors,” Harris added.<\/p>\n The new study included 24 heart<\/a> failure patients who completed daily questionnaires for one week about their stress<\/a>, anger and negative emotions.<\/p>\n That was followed by a mental stress test in which the patients solved math problems and described a recent stressful experience. Echocardiograms were done to assess diastolic heart function<\/a> at rest and during stress.<\/p>\n Diastolic function is the heart’s ability to relax and refill between beats. In heart failure, a damaged or weakened heart doesn’t pump as much blood as the body needs — a condition that can be life-threatening.<\/p>\n Patients who reported experiencing anger in the week before the mental stress test had worse resting diastolic pressure, the researchers found.<\/p>\n According to senior study author Matthew Burg, “Factors such as mental stress and anger often go unrecognized and are under-addressed. This study contributes to the extensive literature showing that stress and anger affect clinical outcomes for patients with heart disease<\/a>, adding chronic heart failure to the list that includes ischemic heart disease<\/a> (narrowed arteries) and arrhythmic disease.”<\/p>\n Burg, a clinical psychologist at Yale, said more work is needed to identify factors that increase vulnerability to stress in heart failure, and to find out if stress management<\/a> can improve outcomes for these patients.<\/p>\n The study findings were published online recently in the Journal of Cardiac Failure<\/i>.<\/p>\n — Steven Reinberg<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
Copyright \u00a9 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
\n
\n ![](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/\/images\/slideshow\/heart_disease_s1_heart.jpg\"\/)
\n