title: Relationship Between Palpitation and Mental Health.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  'Palpitation' is one of the most common complaints in patients referring to cardiologists. In modern medicine era, these patients suffer from much distress and some cases are known to be difficult to treat. Although the clinician's first duty is obviously to search for an organic basis for this symptom, the diagnostic evaluation is frequently unrevealing. However, clinical experience suggests that psychiatric causes are relatively common.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This research aimed to screen for mental disorders in patients complaining of palpitation and healthy persons in order to perform a preliminary comparison between them.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a case-control study to screen mental disorders. The target population consisted of adult volunteers with benign palpitation and their matched healthy persons. They were referred during a 10-month-period to the cardiology outpatient's clinic of Mostafa Khomeini hospital in Tehran, Iran. Sampling was accidental and eventually 110 participants comprised the sample size. The measuring tool was GHQ-28 (28-item general health questionnaire) and the main variable was the questionnaire score obtained from the Likert scoring method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comparing two groups showed that the number of participants with the scores more than cut-off point in palpitation group was significantly more than healthy person group (85.4% vs. 43.6% with P < 0.001). Also the total score of GHQ-28 and scores of its subscale (somatization, anxiety, and social dysfunction) in patients complaining of palpitation were significantly more than those of the healthy participants (34.2 vs. 25.7, 8.9 vs. 6.4, 9.4 vs. 6.4, and 12.3 vs. 10.8, respectively with P < 0.001, P = 0.001, P < 0.001, and P < 0.007, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Palpitation is the most common symptom in psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and somatization disorders. According to the results of this study, psychiatric causes have an important role in Iranian patients complaining of palpitations (benign form). Considering this fact may lead to a more effective treatment of benign palpitations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Pharmacy, School of Traditional Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alijaniha
authors.affiliation: Psychosomatic Ward, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmadali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noorbala
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Suleiman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Afsharypuor
authors.affiliation: Traditional Medicine Clinical Trial Research Center, Shahed University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naseri
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Department, Shahed University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Faramarz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fallahi
authors.affiliation: Dean Traditional Medicine and Materia Medica Research Center (TMRC), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mahmood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mosaddegh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Soghrat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Faghih Zadeh
authors.affiliation: Division of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Sima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadrai
keywords: Anxiety; Mental Health; Palpitation; Somatization