Psychological interventions reduced cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.79; 95% CI 0.63-0.98) and improved psychological symptoms compared with usual care in patients with coronary heart disease.
Meta-Analysis (n=10,703)
Do psychological interventions reduce cardiovascular mortality and improve psychological symptoms in patients with coronary heart disease compared to usual care?
Psychological interventions in patients with coronary heart disease are associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality and improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress.
Relative Risk: 0.79 (95% CI 0.63–0.98)
Background Although psychological interventions are recommended for the management of coronary heart disease (CHD), there remains considerable uncertainty regarding their effectiveness. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of psychological interventions for CHD. Methods The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched to April 2016. Retrieved papers, systematic reviews and trial registries were hand-searched. We included RCTs with at least 6 months of follow-up, comparing the direct effects of psychological interventions to usual care for patients following myocardial infarction or revascularisation or with a diagnosis of angina pectoris or CHD defined by angiography. Two authors screened titles for inclusion, extracted data and assessed risk of bias. Studies were pooled using random effects meta-analysis and meta-regression was used to explore study-level predictors. Results Thirty-five studies with 10,703 participants (median follow-up 12 months) were included. Psychological interventions led to a reduction in cardiovascular mortality (rfcelative risk 0.79, 95% confidence interval CI 0.63 to 0.98), although no effects were observed for total mortality, myocardial infarction or revascularisation. Psychological interventions improved depressive symptoms (standardised mean difference SMD -0.27, 95% CI -0.39 to -0.15), anxiety (SMD -0.24, 95% CI -0.38 to -0.09) and stress (SMD -0.56, 95% CI -0.88 to -0.24) compared with controls. Conclusions We found that psychological intervention improved psychological symptoms and reduced cardiac mortality for people with CHD. However, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the magnitude of these effects and the specific techniques most likely to benefit people with different presentations of CHD.
Richards et al. (Thu,) conducted a meta-analysis in coronary heart disease (n=10,703). Psychological interventions vs. usual care was evaluated on cardiovascular mortality (relative risk 0.79, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.98). Psychological interventions reduced cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.79; 95% CI 0.63-0.98) and improved psychological symptoms compared with usual care in patients with coronary heart disease.