Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Editorial
. 2014 Apr;76(3):168-70.
doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000054.

Current perspective on mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia

David S Krantz  1 , Matthew M Burg
Affiliations
Editorial

Current perspective on mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia

David S Krantz et al. Psychosom Med. 2014 Apr.

Abstract

Mental stress and emotional arousal can act as triggers of myocardial infarction and other adverse cardiovascular outcomes. This editorial presents an overview of the research on mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI) and comments on two investigations examining MSIMI published in this journal. These studies confirm that MSIMI is frequently observed in patients with coronary artery disease and that characteristics, such as being a woman younger than 50 years and depression, may increase the relative risk of MSIMI. The method used for determining MSIMI (i.e., assessing cardiac function as determined by echocardiography versus measurement of myocardial perfusion using single-photon emission computed tomography), as well as the nature of the mental stress protocols (i.e., one stress task versus several repeated tasks), may have important effects on the findings of MSIMI research and on their interpretation. An overview of clinical characteristics of MSIMI is presented, and the article concludes with possible directions for future MSIMI research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment on

References

    1. National Research Council (US) Committee on Assessing Behavioral and Social Science Research on Aging; Feller I, Stern PC, editors. A Strategy for Assessing Science: Behavioral and Social Research on Aging. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US); 2007:4. Progress in Science. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26378/ - PubMed
    1. Williams J, Edwards J. The death of John Hunter. JAMA 1968;204:806–9.
    1. Taggart P, Gibbons D, Somerville W. Some effects of motor-car driving on the normal and abnormal heart. BMJ 1969;4:130–4. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vaccarino V, Shah AJ, Rooks C, Ibeanu I, Nye JA, Pimple P, Salerno A, D’Marco L, Karohl C, Bremner JD, Raggi P. Sex differences in mental stress–induced myocardial ischemia in young survivors of an acute myocardial infarction. Psychosom Med 2014;76:171–80. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boyle SH, Samad Z, Becker RC, Williams R, Kuhn C, Ortel TL, Kuchibhatla M, Prybol K, Rogers J, O’Connor C, Velazquez EJ, Jiang W. Depressive symptoms and mental stress–induced myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary heart disease. Psychosom Med 2013;75:822–31. - PMC - PubMed