Can Written Information Reduce Anxiety for Patients in a Chest Pain Unit?

Many hospitals have a chest pain unit (CPU) within the emergency department for evaluation of patients at low risk for acute coronary syndromes. Myocardial infarction is ruled out in most CPU patients, but these patients might have anxiety about potential causes of their chest pain, and we might not provide them with sufficient information to reduce anxiety. British researchers prospectively randomized 700 consecutive adult patients without known coronary disease who were admitted to a single CPU to receive verbal information alone (control) or with an information sheet (intervention). After a patient’s management plan had been formulated, chest pain nurses provided standard verbal advice to all patients; in the intervention group, the nurs…