Oct 14 2008
Heart Disease Often Misdiagnosed as Anxiety in Women
I ran across this study today and found it kind of disturbing. I mean, I’ve heard doctors have done this for years, but I have never run across any studies that supported the claims — until now. According to the results of a new study, physicians tend to see women who present with signs of coronary heart disease and who admit they have had a recent life stressor are more likely to be diagnosed as having an anxiety disorder than men who present with the same situation.
Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation conducted two studies, one involving 87 internists and the other involved 143 family physicians. In each study, different scenarios were given to each internist or physician and they were asked to diagnose the patient based on the provided information and to create treatment recommendations. In half of the scenarios, there were sentences that indicated the patient had experienced a recent life stressor.
The results indicated that cardiovascular symptoms drove diagnoses for men - regardless of whether they had experienced a recent life stressor while women were diagnosed with anxiety disorders when they presented with a recent life stressor. More specifically, while 56% of men who presented with life stressors were diagnosed with coronary heart disease, only 15% of women who presented with stressors were given a coronary heart disease diagnosis.
Additionally, while only 30% of women who presented with a recent life stressor were referred to a cardiologist, 62% of men were. Finally, while 47% of men who presented with cardiac symptoms and recent life stressors were prescribed heart medication, only 13% of women who presented with similar situations were prescribed heart medication.
The researchers also conducted a study with 142 family physicians where patients presented with atypical symptoms of coronary heart disease. According to the study authors, women tend to present with atypical symptoms of heart disease more often than men. For instance, men tend to present with chest pain more often than women.
In this study, they found that women and men were more likely to receive a GI diagnosis rather than a heart disease diagnosis when the patients presented with recent life stressors. The researchers also discovered women were more likely than men to receive a GI diagnosis regardless of whether stressors were present in their lives.
Ronald Friend, co-investigator and author in these studies and Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook University and Oregon Health & Sciences University, School of Nursing stated:
“Given that women are more like to present with atypical symptoms (and stress), these preliminary results are cause for concern.”
The authors suggest their findings are reason for developing educational programs to inform physicians and internists about the differences in symptom presentation among women and men with coronary heart disease.
Please tell me what you think in the comments section below!
Source:
Psych Central: Women’s Heart Disease Misdiagnosed as Anxiety
