Hi everyone
I've had panic disorder for around 15 years and have suffered countless panic attacks, as many as several a week at one time in my life.
From most of the self help books I've read the consensus is that panic attacks do not cause or lead to heart attacks or cardiovascular disease. Why is is that the scientific evidence that I find on the internet states otherwise... For instance today I stumbled upon this whilst trawling for information on panic attacks:-
"It is often stated that panic attacks do not lead to heart attacks. This is true as far as it goes; however, sufferers of uncontrolled panic disorder are at a quadrupled risk for eventually experiencing a serious cardiac event. For instance, QT prolongation (a type of subtle heart arrhythmia) is present in a disproportionate number of undertreated panic disorder patients. In fact, a variety of arrhythmias are observed with disproportionate frequency in panic disorder patients, though many of them are only observable during an episode or during the lead-in to an episode. The paroxysm of the attack itself may serve to correct the arrhythmia."
This was from the website http://www.panic411.com/, which gives an overview of panic disorder and its effects.
Who is right? Are panic attacks that damaging?