title: Investigation of anxiety levels of patients with chest pain admitted to emergency department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We aimed to investigate the demographical features, anxiety levels and clinical findings of the patients admitted to our Emergency department (ED) due to chest pain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with chest pain older than 18 years were included into the study. Demographical features such as age, sex and education level, initial diagnosis in the ED, whether they were hospitalized or coronary intervention performed, were recorded. To determine the anxiety levels of the patients, State-trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two-hundred and eight adult patients with chest pain were included into the study. We could not determine a relationship between STAI levels of patients according to demographical findings, however, STAI scores tended to decrease by age. Considering the education levels of the patients, it was determined that STAI scores of university graduates were higher than others. The STAI scores of patients discharged from the ED were higher than those hospitalized. When patients were compared according to whether coronary intervention (CI) was performed or not, it was determined that patients who did not require CI had higher STAI scores. When coronary lesion localization of the patients hospitalized was investigated, any relationship could not be determined.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, we determined that anxiety levels of the patients with chest pain do not correlate with the severity of the disease. Higher anxiety levels of patients discharged from ED when compared to those with ACS is a challenging problem for both ED physicians and cardiologists.
authors.affiliation: Samsun Education and Research Hospital, Emergency Department, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gokhan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Basara
authors.affiliation: Ondokuz Mayis University, Emergency Department, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baydin
authors.affiliation: Samsun Training and Research Hospital, Department of Neurology, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.affiliation: Samsun Education and Research Hospital of Cardiology, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Oguzhan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yucel
authors.affiliation: Samsun Education and Research Hospital, Emergency Department, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali Kemal
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Erenler
authors.affiliation: Ondokuz Mayis University, Department of Statistics, Samsun, Turkey.
authors.forename: Naci
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Murat
keywords: Anxiety; Chest pain; Emergency department