Heart diseases influenced by emotions

Emotions such as acute stress, depression and anxiety increase the risk of heart disease, research by professor Willem Kop at the department of Medical Psychology and Neuropsychology shows.

Kop will give his inaugural address about this research on June 10. The researcher mapped out new biological mechanisms that may explain the relationship between psychological risk factors and heart disease.

In the Netherlands some 25,000 people are admitted to hospital with a heart attack annually. Before having an infarct, people have often experienced acute mental stress – such as extreme anger, stress and anxiety. These emotions create a higher blood pressure and heart rate, which increases the heart’s workload.

Moreover, Kop’s research shows that these acute emotions also affect other biological processes, including blood coagulation and inflammatory reactions. This is an important finding, because these biological processes can speed up cardiovascular disease.

Also long-lasting emotional problems and social factors as low income and discrimination can increase the risk of a heart attack, for example because the hardening of the arteries in the coronary arteries increases faster.