[Psychological and physical well-being of cardiological outpatients with chest pain]

Objectives: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the psychological and physical well-being of patients with chest pain depending on availability cardiological disease (coronary heart disease, different cardiological disease, no cardiological disease, unclear diagnose).

Methods: In a total of 383 cardiological outpatients, anxiety and depression (HADS) as well as physical complaints (B-L) were assessed.

Results: For half of the outpatients, no cardiological diagnose was found that explained the symptoms of chest pain. In comparison to the general population, outpatients with various cardiological symptoms exhibited a lower psychological and physical well-being independent of availability cardiological disease. 50.9% of the outpatients showed elevated anxiety scores, 35.2% showed elevated depression scores and 71.7% felt impaired by physical complaints. In comparison to males, females were more anxious and exhibited a lower physical well-being. In general, physical impairment increased with age, while anxiety decreased.

Conclusions: The present study discovered a very high psychological comorbidity in cardiological outpatients with chest pain that underlines the necessity of an integrated psychosomatic care regardless of clinical finding. In order to understand the symptom of chest pain it is not indicated to differentiate between cardiologically vs. psychologically ill patients.