Editorials

Affect and heart disease

Are linked, but the mechanisms are unclear

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Although connections between emotions and the health of the heart have been postulated for centuries,¹ population based empirical studies were not available until recently. Early interest in the 1970s centred on the type A behaviour pattern characterised by a tendency towards impatience, anger, competitiveness, and achievement. On the whole, however, findings on type A behaviour as a risk factor for coronary heart disease were inconsistent, leading to the notion that subcomponents such as anger may have a more definitive role.

More recently, studies on psychological risk factors have focused on anger, anxiety, and depression.^{1 2 3} Although the topic is continually debated, many prospective studies suggest that anxiety and depression increase the risk for heart disease, especially incident heart disease.³ Results for anger are more mixed.³

The linked study by Nabi and colleagues uses data from the Whitehall II study to examine the association between affect and the development of incident coronary . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021, USA

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Relevant Article

Positive and negative affect and risk of coronary heart disease: Whitehall II prospective cohort study

Hermann Nabi, Mika Kivimaki, Roberto De Vogli, Michael G Marmot, and Archana Singh-Manoux
BMJ 2008 337: a118. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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• (2008). Should Negative Affect Be Added to the List of Cardiac Risk Factors?. JWatch Emergency Med. 2008: 4-4 [Full text]