Anger may cause sudden death: Study

Connecticut, February 24: According to a new study, intense emotions, like anger, can stimulate deadly heart rhythms that have the potential to pose a threat to life.

As per the study findings that were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vulnerable people may be more affected by anger and other strong emotional turmoil than healthy people.

A number of earlier studies also show that events like earthquakes, war or even the loss of a World Cup Soccer match induce strong feelings and emotions. Such events are known to augment the risk of death by sudden cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest is lethal as it is caused due to immediate termination of blood circulation resulting from a heart failure. According to the statistics gathered by American College of Cardiology, more than 400,000 deaths result from sudden cardiac arrest annually in the United States.

Dr. Rachel Lampert of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut remarked, "It's definitely been shown in all different ways that when you put a whole population under a stressor that sudden death will increase."

The study attempted to find out how strong emotions influence the electrical system of the heart, Lampert added.

The study involved 62 patients with heart disease and implantable heart defibrillators or ICDs –device that can detect lethal heart rhythms (also called arrhythmias) and can be used to give electrical shock in order to restore a normal heart beat rhythm.

The study participants were vulnerable to arrhythmias. They were asked to give an account of a recent episode that had made them angry. While the participants narrated the incident, Lampert and his teammates conducted T-Wave Alternans Test to evaluate electrical instability in the hearts of the patients.

According to Lampert, as the participants were made to “experience again” the anger they had experienced earlier, the electrical instability of the heart increased with anger.

After observing the participants for three years, it was found that "the people who had the highest anger-induced electrical instability were 10 times more likely than everyone else to have an arrhythmia in follow-up," she added.

The study concluded that strong and intense emotions like anger can be really fatal for people, especially those who have weak heart. Anger can initiate electrical disturbances in the heart which may cause sudden cardiac arrest, Lampert said.