- Researchers report that people who have pain the year following a heart attack have a higher risk of death in the enusing years.
- They said the increased risk is present even if the pain isn’t related to the heart attack.
- Expert say the findings should alert medical professionals to the need to closely monitor people in the year after they’ve had a heart attack.
People who survive a heart attack but continue to experience moderate to severe pain afterward may be at increased risk of death in the next several years.
And it doesn’t even matter if the pain isn’t related to the heart attack, according to a new study by Swedish researchers, who reported that persistent pain was more likely to be related to other health problems.
The
The risk of death was twice as high among people who experienced extreme pain, according to the researchers led by Linda Vixner, an associate professor of medical science at the School of Health and Welfare at Dalarna University in Falun in Sweden.
Pain is a
However, the link between persistent pain after a heart attack and mortality has not previously been the subject of a large-scale study, the researchers said.
Persistent pain after a heart attack is not uncommon.
The researchers said that nearly 45% of the study participants reported moderate to severe pain one year after their heart attack.
Notably, 65% of the participants who experiencing pain at a two-month follow up were still experiencing pain at a 12-month follow up, indicating that their pain was persistent.
“After a heart attack, it’s important to assess and recognize pain as an important risk factor of future mortality,” said Vixner in a
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