Doctors Urged to Pay Attention to PTSD Among Heart Attack Patients

A new study conducted by an American researcher has found that cardiologists often do not pay attention to signs of post traumatic stress disorder among patients who have suffered from heart attacks. The study was conducted by Donald Edmondson, who is an assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Edmondson and his colleagues reviewed more than 24 studies, involving over 2,300 patients, which looked into the link between PTSD and heart attacks and found that over 12.5 percent of the patients experienced PTSD which affected their day-to-day activities.

Edmondson said that cardiologists should do more to look for signs of PTSD which can be easily done by asking patients to fill out a four-item questionnaire. “It takes next to no time. They are already screening for depression, so why not throw in these four questions?” he said.



Source-Medindia