ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997 TAG: 9703100074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Many patients with rapid heartbeats are mistakenly treated for panic attacks.
Rapid heartbeat caused by a curable heart disorder can easily be misdiagnosed as a panic attack, a study has found.
That means patients can end up going to psychiatrists instead of getting treatment for the abnormal electrical impulses that control their heartbeat, according to the study in today's issue of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers said up to 154,000 Americans each year suffer new cases of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia - or PSVT.
The disorder, which is usually not life-threatening, is caused by an extra electrical link between the heart's upper and lower chambers, said the study's lead author, Dr. Michael Lehmann, clinical associate professor of medicine at Wayne State University and director of the Arrhythmia Center at Sinai Hospital in Detroit.
In the study of 107 patients with accelerated heartbeat, 59 cases of PSVT initially had gone undiagnosed.
In 32, doctors ``attributed symptoms to panic, anxiety or stress.'' Twelve percent of the patients who were misdiagnosed sought psychiatric treatment before learning they suffered from PSVT, the study found.
On average, a correct diagnosis took three years and four months, the study found. A follow-up study found that treatment eliminated the symptoms in 86 percent of cases, researchers said.
Panic disorder grips sufferers with sudden, unpredictable waves of intense fear. Symptoms include rapid heartbeat, trouble breathing, chest pain, choking, dizziness and faintness. An estimated 3 million Americans will suffer from panic disorder in their lifetimes.
Dr. Bernard Beitman, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and not a participant in the research, said that rapid heartbeats caused by PSVT might trigger panic attacks.
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