Heart-focused anxiety as a mediating variable in the treatment of non-cardiac chest pain by cognitive-behavioural and psychopharmacological treatment by paroxetine.

摘要

Noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) is recurrent pain in the chest resembling heart pain that cannot be attributed to any cardiac cause after a thorough evaluation [1]. It is a common and difficult problem in modern healthcare. Half or more of the millions of patients who are urgently evaluated for chest pain complaints each year in emergency departments and cardiac clinics fit into this diagnostic category [2,3]. The pain in NCCP is thought to have different causes in different patients, and these may include gastroesophageal acid reflux, esophageal motility abnormalities, visceral hyperalgesia, musculoskeletal problems, or anxiety and panic [4].