Trait anxiety is significantly associated with illness behavior in myocardial infarction survivors, suggesting that baseline coping mechanisms strongly influence responses to serious illness.
May warrant anxiety screening in MI survivors; leaves open causality and need for longitudinal trials.
State and trait anxiety correlates of eight dimensions of illness behavior in response to myocardial infarction, were examined for 120 survivors of myocardial infarction. Six of eight illness behavior dimensions were found to be significantly associated with measures of state anxiety or trait anxiety or both. Trait anxiety was most predominently associated with illness behavior, inviting the conclusion that those persons who normally respond to crises with difficulty, will behave similarly in response to serious illness. It was suggested that recognition of this may be of use to clinicians faced with the care of survivors of myocardial infarction.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Byrne et al. (1984) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: