Children With Anxiety Could Suffer From Severe Chest Pain

According to a study by researchers from the University of Georgia, children who are regularly anxious could suffer from severe chest pain.

A UGA study, in collaboration with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University, found that children who complained of regular chest pain were more likely to experience anxiety and depression than those who didn't.

"The fact that these psychological symptoms are higher in noncardiac chest pain patients suggests the psychological symptoms may be playing a role in the presentation of chest pain," said Jennifer Lee, a doctoral candidate in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and the study's lead author in a report published by Medical Xpress.

The results of the study were published Nov. 5 in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

Lee said it is not clear if the anxiety is a cause of the pain, or if pain caused the anxiety in the sample group.

"The higher levels weren't so high as to cause a clinical diagnosis on their own, but when you contrast the two groups, there were statistically significant differences," said study co-author Ronald Blount, a psychology professor in the Franklin College.

The study was conducted on 129 patients aged 8 to 18. They were all asked to complete a few surveys before they took part in the study.

"We are highlighting that psychology has a part in these symptoms," Blount said, "and screening for psychological, as well as medical factors, is one implication we foresee coming from this investigation."

"We know up front that 99 percent of these patients will not have a heart complication at all. The trick is, it is not zero, and I cannot miss the one patient with heart disease because the consequences could be catastrophic," said Dr. Robert Campbell, chief of the Sibley Heart Center and division director of the department of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine.