Linking Cardiovascular Emergencies to Outcomes of Trauma Events
Cardiovascular emergencies can have debilitating effects on patients. Emergencies include heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrest, heart failure, and unstable angina, which are life-threatening conditions that affect the patient physically, emotionally, and psychologically (Princip et al., 2024). Experiencing any of these conditions brings a sense of imminent death that causes the patient to feel anxious, helpless, and without control of their life or future. These feelings are usually the mind’s way of reacting to traumatic experiences, and outcomes can differ for different individuals. For instance, when a patient experiences a heart attack and feels that impending sense of doom, the feeling might be engraved in their brain even after the event has passed. Such feelings can cause the development of stress and trauma-related disorders like adjustment disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and acute stress disorder (Princip et al., 2024). The development of these illnesses affects patient outcomes because they need additional interventions for treatment and to return back to optimal functioning. This means additional costs of treatment, which causes additional stress for patients.
The development of trauma-related disorders also predisposes the patient to an additional risk of having cardiovascular emergencies in the future (Birk et al., 2020). This is because additional stress from the disorders causes an increased risk of the patient having cardiovascular problems that may lead to recurrent emergencies. Additionally, the psychological state of the patient after the trauma event determines their compliance with medication and other secondary prevention interventions (Birk et al., 2020). Those who do not comply with medication and prevention strategies end up having recurrent cardiac events that still traumatize them.
In conclusion, cardiac emergencies affect people psychologically because of the trauma they undergo. Patients may develop stress and trauma-related disorders, which in turn increase the risk of recurrence of cardiac emergencies. Outcomes related to treatment compliance and secondary prevention are also affected depending on how the patient responds to a cardiac emergency.
