Anxiety on admission to a coronary care unit

The degree of anxiety was measured, by means of a short questionnaire, in 338 patients with acute ischaemic heart disease immediately after admission to a coronary care unit. Admission to the coronary care unit did not increase anxiety more than that seen in patients admitted as medical emergencies to the general wards. Women were more anxious than men and patients with myocardial ischaemia were more disturbed than those with infarction. Speed of admission to the unit was associated with the clinical state of the patient, not with the degree of anxiety; those with cardiogenic shock or failure being admitted fastest. The way in which patients arrived at the coronary care unit did not affect their degree of anxiety—in particular the use of a mobile coronary care unit for transport of patients to hospital did not alarm the patients. Plasma catecholamines were estimated in 19 of the patients with myocardial infarction. Raised concentrations were associated with the severity of the infarction, not with the individual's anxiety measurement. High anxiety was found to be associated with mortality in the hospital but not with patients who arrested but were successfully resuscitated, suggesting that anxiety is not a precursor of cardiac arrest of the primary arrhythmic type.