94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Mood Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1467876
Association between catheter ablation and psychiatric disorder risk in adults with atrial fibrillation: a multi-institutional retrospective cohort study
Provisionally accepted
TINGHUI LIU 
Jheng-Yan Wu 
Po-Yu Huang 
Wan-Hsuan Hsu 
Min-Hsiang Chuang 
YA-WEN TSAI Kuang-Yang Hsieh *
Chih-Cheng Lai *- Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
Background: Given that atrial fibrillation (AF) s associated with a high risk of psychiatric disorders, understanding the potential benefits of catheter ablation is clinically significant. This study was conducted to examine whether catheter ablation can prevent psychiatric disorders in patients with AF.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted over two years using data from the TriNetX electronic health record network. The study included adults diagnosed with AF and treated with either antiarrhythmic or rate-control medications.Participants were divided into two groups: those who underwent catheter ablation and a control group without ablation. The primary outcome measured was a composite of anxiety, depression, and insomnia occurrence within one to three years post-treatment. Secondary outcomes included individual psychiatric disorders, suicidal ideation or attempts, dementia, cerebral infarction, and atopic dermatitis (as a negative control).We included 21,019 patients in each matched group. The ablation group demonstrated a lower risk of the primary combined outcome (hazard ratio(HR):0.873, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.784-0.973, p<0.01), and secondary outcomes including anxiety (HR:0.822, 95% CI:0.700-0.964; p=0.016), depression (HR:0.614, 95% CI:0.508-0.743; p<0.001), suicidal ideation or attempts (HR:0.392, 95% CI:0.165-0.934; p=0.028), dementia (HR:0.569, 95% CI:0.422-0.767; p<0.001), and cerebral infarction (HR:0.704, 95% CI:0.622-0.797; p<0.001) compared to the non-ablation group.In patients with atrial fibrillation, catheter ablation was associated with a reduced risk of developing psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, insomnia, suicidal ideation or attempt, and dementia, in comparison to those who did not undergo ablation. Clinicians should consider incorporating psychiatric risk factors into their comprehensive patient assessment when evaluating candidates for catheter ablation.
Keywords: Atrial Fibrillation, Catheter Ablation, Anxiety, Depression, insomnia, suicidal ideation or attempt, Dementia
Received: 21 Jul 2024; Accepted: 03 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LIU, Wu, Huang, Hsu, Chuang, TSAI, Hsieh and Lai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kuang-Yang Hsieh, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, 71004, Taiwan
Chih-Cheng Lai, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, 71004, Taiwan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.