how can panic attack cause heart arrest?

Question

a person was suffering from congestive heart failure (cor pulmonale due to COPD) and i am wondering if high anxiety/panic attack could have lead to cardiac arrest as person died

if so, in which way (how did this happen) ?

this happened after 4 days of flu-related COPD exacerbation .

i could also imagine some sudden walk excercise added up to the heart failure?

Answer 1

Panic attacks, cause increase secretion of adrenaline which then causes sudden cardiac arrest.

Answer 2

Panic attacks rarely cause cardiac arrest unless they are accompanied by an inherited disorder such as LQTS. In the case of congestive heart failure, what probably happened was that the heart was low on oxygen levels, rendering the myocardial cells 'super excited', as adrenaline flowed through the heart, it prematurely detonated some of these cells before others could relax fully - causing ventricular fibrillation - a form of cardiac arrest.

Answer 3

My friend know that when a people goes to a congestion heart failure or heart attack it automatically comes with a stress as the body is trying to defend itself & adjust itself to the situation.

Answer 4

Given that cardiac history, it is possible.