25% of emergency room patients presenting with chest pain met the criteria for something else entirely, yet attending emergency department cardiologists failed to recognize it 98 times out of 100. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 805,000 Americans have a heart attack each year, and 605,000 are first heart attacks. Knowing the risk factors, symptoms and how to take early action will increase your chances of survival. However, what may look and feel like an apparent heart attack may actually be a panic attack, and according to researchers, the cost of misdiagnosing noncardiac chest pain is high. “It is important for physicians to be able to recognize panic attacks and to distinguish them from cardiac disease, thus avoiding unnecessary use of health care resources,” one report states. An investigation published in 1996 found that 25% of emergency room patients presenting with chest pain met the DSM-III-R criteria for …