March 1, 1978
View Full PaperPsychiatric Antecedents of Myocardial Infarction
Structured PICO
Are psychiatric symptoms and stressful life events associated with a higher risk of myocardial infarction?
P
Population
80 individuals, comprising 40 consecutive survivors after myocardial infarction (MI) and a matched sample of 40 controls.
I
Intervention
Psychosocial factors (symptoms of anxiety, depression, stressful life events, and personality traits)
C
Comparator
Matched controls without recent MI
O
Outcome
Prior occurrence of symptoms of anxiety and depression, and preceding stressful life eventspatient reported
Psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression, along with stressful life events, are significantly more common prior to myocardial infarction compared to matched controls.
Abstract
Forty consecutive survivors after myocardial infarction (MI) were compared by means of a semistructured interview with a matched sample of 40 controls in respect of various psychosocial factors. The MI group reported a much higher prior occurrence of symptoms of anxiety and depression. The complaints included being tired, irritable, restless, upset and anxious, plus insomnia and anhedonia. Preceding stressful life events were about 2 1/2 times as common with the MI group. However, long-term persanality traits which were not recent additions due to psychiatric change before MI did not strongly discriminate between the two groups, and recognized variables such as cigarette smoking had a lesser association with MI. Similar results were obtained when information about each patient and each control was supplied by a close informant.
Cite This Study
Bianchi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.