Deans' stroke musings: Anxiety Linked to Increased Stroke Risk

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Anxiety Linked to Increased Stroke Risk

Don't you dare be anxious about your recovery you'll increase your risk of stroke.
theheart.org writeup here;
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/818373?t=1
The abstract here:
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/12/19/STROKEAHA.113.003741.abstract

+ Author Affiliations

From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA (M.J.L., R.C.T.); and Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA (L.D.K.).

Correspondence to Maya J. Lambiase, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3811 O’Hara St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail MJL106@pitt.edu

Abstract

Background and Purpose—Higher levels of anxiety are associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease. However, few studies have investigated whether anxiety is associated with stroke risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between anxiety symptoms and incident stroke in a nationally representative longitudinal study of the US population.

Methods—Participants (n=6019) in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were assessed at baseline and followed for 16.29±4.75 years. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of incident stroke associated with a 1 SD increase in anxiety symptoms. Models were adjusted for standard cardiovascular risk factors and additionally for depression.

Results—A total of 419 incident stroke cases were identified from hospital/nursing home discharge reports and death certificates. Reporting more anxiety symptoms at baseline was associated with increased risk of incident stroke after adjusting for standard biological and behavioral cardiovascular risk factors (hazard ratio, 1.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.03–1.25). Findings persisted when additionally controlling for depression. Exploratory analyses considering the role of potential confounding versus pathway variables suggested that behavioral factors may be a key pathway linking anxiety to stroke risk.

Conclusions—Higher anxiety symptom levels were associated prospectively with increased risk for incident stroke independent of other risk factors, including depression. Anxiety is a modifiable experience that is highly prevalent among the general population. Its assessment and treatment may contribute to developing more effective preventive and intervention strategies for improving overall cardiovascular health.