CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 61Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsCardiac Health and Mental HealthCardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders

The clinical course of palpitations in medical outpatients

Barsky, Arthur J.·1995·Archives of Internal Medicine
DOI 10.1001/archinte.1995.00430160124012
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe the longitudinal course of patients who were referred for ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring because of palpitations. METHODS: A prospective, follow-up examination was conducted of patients who had been studied 6 months previously when referred for monitoring. The inception cohort consisted of 145 consecutive patients with palpitations and 70 asymptomatic, nonpatient volunteers. At follow-up, the patients completed the same research battery as at inception, consisting of structured interviews and self-report questionnaires. These assessed cardiac symptoms, medical care use, role impairment, somatization, hypochondriacal fears and beliefs, and psychiatric disorder. RESULTS: At 6 months' follow-up, 130 patients with palpitations (89.7% of the original cohort) and 69 nonpatients (98.6%) were reinterviewed. Eighty-four percent of the patients had recurrent palpitations during the 6-month follow-up period. At follow-up, patients with palpitations scored significantly higher than the comparison group on measures of cardiac symptoms and role impairment, and had made more physician visits in the preceding 6 months. They had a higher prevalence of panic disorder and more psychopathologic symptoms, somatized more, and were more hypochondriacal. Psychiatric symptoms and the tendency to amplify bodily sensation, measured at inception, were significant but modest predictors of subsequent palpitations. There was considerable confusion and misunderstanding among patients as to the findings of their ambulatory electrocardiogram and the presence or absence of panic disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with palpitations remain symptomatic and functionally impaired and have increased rates of physician visits in the 6 months following Holter monitoring. They also continue to have elevated rates of panic disorder and to evidence some confusion about the cause of their symptoms.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1001/archinte.1995.00430160124012

Cites

38 of 38 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Barsky, A. J.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Barsky, Arthur J.
Venue
Archives of Internal Medicine
Publisher
American Medical Association (AMA)
Published
1995-09-11
Volume
155
Issue
16
Pages
1782
ISSN
0003-9926 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1001/archinte.1995.00430160124012
OpenAlex
W1989888730
Cited by
61
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
FWCI
1.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Archives of Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01hl043216-08)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL 43216)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Cardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders
Keywords
palpitations, Holter monitoring, panic disorder, somatization, health anxiety, role impairment, health care utilization, cardiac symptoms, psychiatric comorbidity, symptom recurrence
MeSH terms
Disabled Persons, Persons with Disabilities, Health Services, Humans, Outpatients, Prospective Studies, Surveys and Questionnaires, Role, Tachycardia, Electrocardiography, Ambulatory, Panic Disorder

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review