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Does Anxiety Cause Heart Palpitations?

Posted on Wed, 31 May 2017

Question: Is it normal for bad anxiety to make heart beat faster?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Muhammad Sareer Khalil (0 minute later)

yes it's quite common.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Muhammad Sareer Khalil (2 minutes later)

I ended up on the ER and they did an ekg, blood work, urine test, listened to heart and then dismissed me with some
Xanax and an outpatient appt for counseling but i cant get it out of my head that my heart is going to stop and i will fall over dead

Answered by Dr. Dr. Muhammad Sareer Khalil (15 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
If the EKG was normal then its good news

Detailed Answer:
Hello and Welcome

I appreciate your concern

If the EKG was normal then there is no need to worry. A normal EKG means that there was no heart rate or rhythm abnormality. A heart block is a rhythm abnormality of the heart which can potentially lead to cardiac arrest. A heart block is evident on an EKG. So if the EKG was normal then there is no cardiac cause for these symptoms.

Anxiety and panic attacks can lead to such feelings of drowning and sinking feeling in the chest. Alprazolam (XANAZ) is an excellent anxiolytic and would address these symptoms. You may take it safely.

Wishing you best of health

Thanks

Let me know if you have any query

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Dr. M.S. Khalil

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Muhammad Sareer Khalil (5 minutes later)

Ok thank you... when i went into ER i was having a full blown panic attack my heart rate was higher than normal and thats why they did Ekg , so you really do think it was a anxiety bc once the nurse laid me down for ekg and started talking to me about something pleasent my heart rate went back to normal range..... so an ekg definatly wouldnt miss some congenital heart rythm defect thats just waiting to kill me? I did mention that occasionally (which ive had many years) that sometimes it feels like heart skips a beat and ER doctor wasn't concerned

Answered by Dr. Dr. Muhammad Sareer Khalil (11 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Explained.

Detailed Answer:
Hello again,
In my opinion if your EKG was normal then its highly unlikely that you have some sort of serious heart condition. The heart rate went up due to the panic attack and so are the occasional missed beats.
You can safely take Xanax for this problem.

Wishing you the best of health.

Thanks

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar