Anxiety Disorder, Stress, Chest Discomfort, Suggested Angina Test. Is Minor Chest Discomfort A Symptom?

Posted on Fri, 16 Mar 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 Answered on

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello,

I have suffered with anxiety disorder and tend to stress a lot. Recently, Ive had some very mild chest discomfort. It doesn't really bother me, i think it may be psychological. I asked a doc on another website if it's a problem and he said I need to go to ER and test for angina, which kind of freaked me out and put my anxiety real high. I think it may just be psyhcological but is minor chest discomfort a symptom? I'm fairly young and don't have any prior illnesses, except for this panic/anxiety disorder

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (47 minutes later)

Hello and thanks for query.

In the presence of your history of your anxiety disorder and your young age and in the absence of heart symptoms like sweating,palpitations,feeling of discomfort and uneasiness,the most likely explanation for your chest discomfort is your anxiety.

There could be many reasons for your anxiety which should be explored by an expert and accordingly dealt with however you must get a preliminary ECG and other heart tests done to rule out any heart involvement.

Although most likely your investigations are going to be normal but still it is always better to be safe rather than feeling sorry later on.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further

Thanks and best of luck.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T