Katrina Survivors May Have Cardiac Risks

By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today. Published: May 27, 2010 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

NEW ORLEANS -- Poor mental health may result in physical problems for relocated survivors of Hurricane Katrina, researchers reported here.

A group of survivors who relocated to Oklahoma not only had more mental health problems but had higher resting heart rates and worse heart rate variability -- risk factors for heart disease -- than matched controls, according to Phebe Tucker, MD, of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City, Okla., who has researched similar issues in survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing./.../