Racing heart and Anxiety

[bluehaze]

Well I would start with some basics about me- I do not smoke (smoked for a year quit that 05-06) I am 22 not overweight dont drink , but also not very active and I do suffer from Panic disorder and Chronic Anxiety.


My question is well this could have very well happened in the past when my anxious worry was always my stomach. since 06 however its been my heart. In March of 2007 I had finished some work outside had some chest pain (muscle strain) My mother was worried started to argue about the ER (she is a huge worrier) I still had my coat on.. I started to feel hot very hot and my heart rate shot up. It is true when taking your pulse when anxious it rises even more but mine was around 160-170. I took .5mg of xanax a tiny dose which did not help much- and it went on for about an hour which due to maybe the xanax and my efforts I had a small nap woke up 3 hours later to a lower heart rate. This then happend many more days with the rates rising 140-170 for 2-4 hours and always slowly coming back down.. My doctor put me on a beta blocker 12.5mg of metotoprol once perday and xanax

I Have been taking the metoprolol for a year now at 12.5 mg per day is there any chance that my body could build up a tolerance to it? And does the Beta Blocker weaken the heart in any way?

Could those rates and there durations be caused be panic attacks and anxiety/stress?

I had an ekg 1 month before this all started and it was normal with a NSR.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

[bluehaze]

Thank you Dr for your response, I had one other question could heart rates rising 140-170 for 2-4 hours and always slowly coming back down, be caused by anxiety and panic?

Thanks so much.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

I Have been taking the metoprolol for a year now at 12.5 mg per day is there any chance that my body could build up a tolerance to it? And does the Beta Blocker weaken the heart in any way?

It is possible to build up a tolerance to beta blockers, but you are on the lowest possible dose of metoprolol.  There is a lot of room to increase it.

The beta blocker will not weaken your heart.

It is probably worth looking into other ways of treating the anxiety.  There are medications that help prevent it rather than treating once it's there (like xanax).  It might be a better long term solution.  Talk to your internist about it (paxil, zoloft, prozac, effexor, etc).

I hope this helps.

[sirwence1]

I have simiar symptoms I do wonder, Doctor, can anxiety and panic cause this?

[bluehaze]

I found a copy of the EKG and it read BPM 111 Tachcardia NSR