Women's Emotions Run High After Heart Attack

An international study of 912 heart attack patients found that women experience greater anxiety following a heart attack than men do. Patients from Australia, England, Japan, South Korea, and the United States completed a 6-question test designed to measure anxiety. The standard score is 0.35 for nonpatients and 1.5 for psychiatric inpatients.

Patients were tested within 72 hours of a heart attack. The women scored an average of 0.76, whereas the men scored an average of 0.57. The study also found that both men and women under age 60 reported higher levels of anxiety after a heart attack than people over age 60, according to the results of a study published recently in Psychosomatic Medicine.