CORRESPONDENCE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Reply
Joel E. Dimsdale, MD*
* University of California, San Diego, UCSD-Psychiatry, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093 (Email: jdimsdale{at}ucsd.edu).
I thank Drs. Williams and Davidson for their interest in my recent paper (1). They emphasize that the literature on stress and cardiovascular disease is extensive and that the clinical consequences are weighty. I agree. Rather than discuss additional references from this enormous literature, I thought I might reply with an excerpt from Billy Collins' poem "Picnic, Lightning" (2), a meditation on freak accidents and death: And we know the message
can be delivered from within.
The heart, no valentine,
decides to quit after lunch,
the power shut off like a switch,
or a tiny dark ship is unmoored
into the flow of the body's rivers,
the brain a monastery,
defenseless on the shore.
The pathophysiological links are readily apparent. Our bodies are poised to respond to life's challenges, and psychological stressors can cast a long shadow on our patients' prospects for the future, particularly in the context of coronary artery disease. Medicine's challenge is to devise interventions so that productive lives are not cut short prematurely by the stress-cardiovascular disease relationship. There has been considerable progress, but more remains to be done.
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References
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1. Dimsdale JE. Psychological stress and cardiovascular disease J Am Coll Cardiol 2008;51:1237-1246.[Abstract/Free Full Text]2. Collins B. Picnic, lightning Picnic, Lightning. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1998. pp. 24-25.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]
Related Article
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Psychological Stress and Cardiovascular Disease With Emphasis on Acute Coronary Syndromes
- Stephen K. Williams and Karina W. Davidson
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2009 53: 1339.
[Full Text]
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