Relationship of psychologic factors to frequent symptomatic ventricular arrhythmia.
Since there is very little available systematic information on the psychological profile of patients with cardiac arrhythmia, a battery of 12 standardized personality inventories was administered to 102 patients ranging in age from 19 to 69 years. Thirty-eight patients with frequent ventricular premature beats (more than 30 per hour) without myocardial infarction were significantly more psychologically symptomatic than 34 age- and sex-matched general medical/surgical patients. The variables found to be significant portray the patient with frequent ventricular premature beats without myocardial infarction: high scores for hysteria, less moral orientation, more anxiety, depression and social alienation, and an inhibited and low respectful style. This combination of psychological variables produced a discriminant function (p less than 0.001) that accounted for 53 percent of the variance between the arrhythmia/no myocardial infarction group and the medical/surgical control group and could correctly predict group membership in 83.3 percent of cases. These results may have further implications in nonpharmacologic and psychotropic adjuncts to antiarrhythmic therapy.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012918:Social Alienation