Alteration of type A behavior and reduction in cardiac recurrences in postmyocardial infarction patients.
Eight hundred sixty-two postmyocardial infarction patients volunteered to be randomly selected and enrolled into: (1) a control section of 270 patients, who received group cardiologic counseling; and (2) an experimental section of 592 patients, who received group type A behavior counseling in addition to group cardiologic counseling. Reduction in type A behavior at the end of 3 years was observed in 43.8% of the 592 participants, who initially were enrolled to receive group cardiologic and type A behavioral counseling. This degree of behavioral reduction was significantly greater than that observed in participants who initially were enrolled to receive only group cardiologic counseling. The 3-year cumulative cardiac recurrence rate was 7.2% in participants who initially were enrolled to receive group cardiologic and type A behavioral counseling. This was significantly less (p less than 0.005) than that (13%) observed in participants who initially were enrolled to receive only cardiologic counseling. This difference in recurrence rates was due to a lesser incidence of nonfatal infarctions in the patients who had been enrolled in the section receiving type A behavioral as well as cardiologic counseling. These data suggest that type A behavior can be altered in a sizable fraction of postinfarction patients and that such alteration is associated with a significantly reduced rate of nonfatal myocardial infarctions.
D001519:Behavior; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000628:therapy; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D011897:Random Allocation; D012008:Recurrence; D012306:Risk