diff --git a/changelog.d/contained-labels-pandas3.rst b/changelog.d/contained-labels-pandas3.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f717d39e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/contained-labels-pandas3.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+**Fix get_contained_labels with pandas 3**
+  ``Annotation.get_contained_labels`` no longer raises a ``TypeError`` with pandas 3 for annotations without ``label_store`` values, such as those read with ``rdann`` by default.
diff --git a/src/wfdb/io/annotation.py b/src/wfdb/io/annotation.py
index 6c3e3b0f..5914785c 100644
--- a/src/wfdb/io/annotation.py
+++ b/src/wfdb/io/annotation.py
@@ -1350,12 +1350,12 @@ def get_contained_labels(self, inplace=True):
             counts = np.unique(self.label_store, return_counts=True)
         elif self.symbol is not None:
             index_vals = set(self.symbol)
-            label_map = label_map.set_index(label_map["symbol"].values)
+            label_map = label_map.set_index("symbol", drop=False)
             reset_index = True
             counts = np.unique(self.symbol, return_counts=True)
         elif self.description is not None:
             index_vals = set(self.description)
-            label_map = label_map.set_index(label_map["description"].values)
+            label_map = label_map.set_index("description", drop=False)
             reset_index = True
             counts = np.unique(self.description, return_counts=True)
         else:
diff --git a/tests/test_annotation.py b/tests/test_annotation.py
index a0e901fd..37a9a8b6 100644
--- a/tests/test_annotation.py
+++ b/tests/test_annotation.py
@@ -342,3 +342,18 @@ def test_aux_note_none(temp_path):
         open(os.path.join(temp_path, "empty.atr"), "rb") as f2,
     ):
         assert f1.read() == f2.read()
+
+
+def test_contained_labels_from_symbols():
+    """Contained labels can be found from symbols alone"""
+    ann = wfdb.rdann("sample-data/100", "atr")
+    assert ann.label_store is None
+    labels = ann.get_contained_labels(inplace=False)
+    assert list(labels.columns) == [
+        "label_store",
+        "symbol",
+        "description",
+        "n_occurrences",
+    ]
+    assert labels.loc[1, "symbol"] == "N"
+    assert labels["n_occurrences"].sum() == len(ann.sample)