Atrial Fibrillation, Cardiac Symptoms, and Anxiety

Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) have a poorer quality of life and have elevated rates of anxiety. Higher anxiety and somatization has been associated with more severe AF symptoms. Increased anxiety symptoms have also been associated with increased medical visits for AF management. Some studies show that anxiety may increase the risk of AF recurrence following medical intervention, including increasing AF recurrence after circumferential pulmonary vein ablation. Growing evidence suggests a pressing need to treat anxiety and improve quality of life among AF patients, yet few data exist about how to accomplish this. Mindfulness-based behavioral treatments offer promise in this regard.

Interoceptive Exposure (IE) is an evidence-based cognitive behavioral intervention to address intolerance of anxiety-related physical sensations, commonly seen in panic disorder and other anxiety disorders. It involves systematically and repeatedly inducing feared physical sensations to promote increased tolerance and reduced distress associated with these symptoms.

Mindfulness is defined as paying attention to the present moment in an open and nonjudgmental way. Mindfulness-based behavioral interventions have been successfully applied in various psychiatric and medical patient populations, including cardiac patients. Two meta-analyses suggest that mindfulness-based interventions are moderately effective for reducing distress related to physical or psychosomatic illnesses.

The investigators of this study hypothesize that a mindfulness and IE intervention will decrease anxiety, AF symptoms and AF recurrence, and will improve quality of life among patients with AF.

This is a pilot, prospective trial of a mindfulness and IE intervention in patients with AF. The mindfulness and IE intervention will be delivered in four to five, manualized, individual sessions.

Inclusion criteria

• Male or female outpatients
• At least 18 years of age
• Clinical diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation
• Literacy and fluency in English
• Ability to return to the hospital for study visits
• Score ≥ 24 on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3.

Exclusion criteria

• Medical co-morbidity sufficient to confound the outcome variables
• Medical co-morbidity for which the experimental treatment is contraindicated
• Clinically significant cognitive impairment
• Known unavailability for follow-up in the ensuing 3 months