Chest pain in depression and anxiety: offering scientific insights about the pertinence of feeling of anguish for mental health

Background: Depressed and anxious patients experience of intense discomfort in the chest. Anguish is a feeling that causes discomfort in the chest that translates into physical sensations or bodily manifestations such as tightness, pain, hole, suffocation or compression in the chest. Method: Were included in the research 100 patients treated at the general, anxiety and adult affective disorders outpatient clinics of the Institute of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Result: Diagnosis of depression was selected in the model (at the 10% level) and its interpretation corroborates the central hypothesis of the study. Correspondence analysis also points to clues in the direction of the research hypothesis. As for the second objective, under the same logistic model, the following variables were shown to be related to the state of anguish: Gender, Reduced HAM-A Score, BSI Somatization, BSI Hostility, BSI Obsession-Compulsion, Age and MINI Depression. Conclusion: The results of this research highlight the need for promoting a more criterious investigation about the role of anguish in mental health.