New York – 9/11 Anxiety Caused Heart Problems

New York – Americans who said they became anxious and stressed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — some just from watching the collapse of the Twin Towers on television — reported higher rates of heart disease up to three years later, researchers said.

While several studies have found high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety in first responders or attack survivors, most of the some 2,000 participants in the study, published in January’s editions of the Archives of General Psychiatry, had no direct connection to Sept. 11.

Using a sample of more than 2,000 adults who reported their medical history to Internet research firm Knowledge Networks, researchers then asked them if they experienced anxiety after Sept. 11, and then conducted follow-up surveys for the first three years after the attacks. [AP]