As found by a new research, people often develop anxiety and stress before getting themselves diagnosed for a certain disease as risk is associated with the same.

The study was led by Dr. Elvira V. Lang and her colleague Nicole Flory from Harvard Medical School, Boston. They analyzed the stress levels of 214 women who had to undergo either of the procedures -- hepatic chemoembolization (a treatment for liver cancer), a breast biopsy for examining a doubtful lump or uterine fibroid embolization.

The participant women were made to fill questionnaires that were framed specially to assess their stress and anxiety levels.

The findings include that those women who had to undergo breast biopsy possessed higher anxiety level score of 48 on an average (the maximum level was 160 on the scale). The anxiety score of chemoembolization patients was an average 26 and that of fibroid embolization patients was 24.

The depression levels were also found the highest among women going for breast biopsy, who scored 15 on an average on the scale of 0 to 40. Those patients with chemoembolization had an average score of 14 and the figure was 12 for fibroid embolization patients. The stress levels for biopsy, chemoembolization and fibroid embolization patients were scored on an average 18, 16 and 15, respectively.

The biopsy patients reported higher anxiety levels as they were concerned about the outcomes of the diagnosis that could put their life into risk.