Obsessive-compulsive character defenses, poverty of fantasy life, and repression of emotional reactions appear predominantly in patients with myocardial infarction compared to angina pectoris.
Are specific psychodynamic features more frequent in patients with myocardial infarction compared to those with angina pectoris?
Patients with myocardial infarction may exhibit distinct psychodynamic features, such as obsessive-compulsive defenses and emotional repression, more frequently than those with angina pectoris.
Although there are opinions to the contrary, the literature provides fairly convincing evidence that some psychodynamic features are more frequent than others in subjects prone to coronary heart disease. As personality changes often take place following myocardial infarction, retrospective studies are less convincing than prospective ones. Most of the latter are rather superficial in nature. However, they point in the direction of predominance of obsessive-compulsive character defences, more in myocardial infarction than in angina pectoris without myocardial infarction. Poverty of fantasy life, operational mode of mental functioning (‘pensée opératoire’ of the French school), repression and control of emotional reactions appear predominantly in the former.
M Dongier (2010) conducted a review in Myocardial Infarction and Angina Pectoris. Psychosomatic aspects vs. Angina Pectoris was evaluated. Obsessive-compulsive character defenses, poverty of fantasy life, and repression of emotional reactions appear predominantly in patients with myocardial infarction compared to angina pectoris.