When Psychiatric Outpatients Feel Non-Thoracic Chest Pain: AStudy on the Relevance of Anguish

Abstract

Anguish is understood as a negative feeling causing intense discomfort in the thoracic region that translates into physical sensations of pain, tightness, pain, hole or compression.

Objectives: This study investigated whether anguish contributes to psychopathological field by identificating symptoms and comorbidities and by relationship between the feeling and the psychiatric diagnosis of depression and anxiety.

Method: The eligible 100 participants treated at a large psychiatric institution in Brazil were assigned to the experimental groups (with anguish + without anguish + doubt) by an interview about experiences of anguish. The BSI, DSQ-40, HADS, HAM-A, STAI and MINI were used to investigate the objetives of the study.

Results: Patients who experienced anguish showed significant diferences in the groups related to symptoms and comorbidities, somatization, fears, depressed mood, gastrointestinal symptoms and neurovegatative symptoms scored higher in the anguish group than in the other groups. Regarding to the second hypothesis inferential analysis found that depression had 3.64 more times to have a relationship with anguish than anxiety.

Conclusions: The present study supports existing evidence that feelings of anguish have relevance to the field of psychiatry. The results presented point to this relevance.