Comparison of the state-trait anxiety levels in patients with and without chest pain who admitted to Dicle University Hospital

Introduction and Objective: Chest pain is one of the most common reasons for presentation to emergency departments, cardiology outpatient clinics and primary health care centers. This pain may be due to cardiac, pulmonary, gastroenterologic, musculoskeletal and psychiatric causes. In the majority of patients, pain is due to non-cardiac causes and chest pain due to psychiatric causes is seen in a significant proportion. In this study, we aimed to determine whether pain is related to anxiety by comparing trait and state anxiety levels of patients presenting to cardiology outpatient clinic with chest pain and patients presenting to family medicine for another reason. Materials and Methods: In our cross-sectional and prospective study, a case group of 105 patients aged 18-65 years who presented with chest pain between 01.06.2024 and 31.08.2024 and a control group of 105 patients of the same age, gender and educational level who presented with a reason other than chest pain were prospectively evaluated. A form inquiring sociodemographic data and the nature of chest pain and the Trait-State Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used as data collection tools. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 program. Results: Of the patients, 54.3% were female and 45.7% were male. The mean age was 34.6±10.7 years. The mean STAI-I score of patients with chest pain was 42.8±10.4 and the mean STAI-II score was 47.6±8.8. In patients without chest pain, the mean STAI-I score was 40±10.4 and the mean STAI-II score was 44.5±8.07. STAI-II scale scores of patients with chest pain were significantly higher than those of patients without chest pain (p=0.006). While STAI-I and STAI-II scale scores of women were higher than men in patients with chest pain, no significant difference was found between genders in terms of scale scores in the group without chest pain (p=0.012 and p=0.031, respectively). Additional complaints such as palpitations (p<0.001), shortness of breath (p<0.001), fatigue (p=0.019), fever (p=0.039), malaise (p<0.001), muscle-joint pain (p=0.008) and stress (p=0.012) were found to be present at a significantly higher rate in patients with chest pain than in patients without chest pain. Conclusion: It was found that patients with chest pain had higher anxiety levels compared to those without chest pain. It is important to take a detailed history of these patients in primary care, evaluate them with physical examination and additional examinations, and refer them correctly. In this way, recurrent hospital admissions can be avoided and access to the right treatment can be ensured. Keywords: Chest pain, Anxiety, Trait-State Anxiety Inventory.