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Distress or Illness? a Study of Psychological Symptoms after Myocardial Infarction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. G. Lloyd  and
R. H. Cawley
G. G. Lloyd
Affiliation:
Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh; previously Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital Medical School, London S.E.5
R. H. Cawley
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital Medical School, London S.E.5
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Summary

Three groups of patients were identified during a study of men who had recently suffered an acute myocardial infarction: those with psychiatric morbidity antedating the infarction, those with psychiatric morbidity immediately following the infarction and those with no significant psychopathology. Compared to the other two groups, patients with psychiatric morbidity before the infarction were more likely to be unmarried, unemployed and to have received previous psychiatric treatment. They also obtained higher scores for neuroticism and psychoticism on personality assessment. Patients whose symptoms have been precipitated by the infarction resembled the psychologically healthy group with regard to their demographic characteristics and personality. Their symptoms tended to be transient, improving without special psychiatric treatment.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 142 , Issue 2 , February 1983 , pp. 120 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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