Psychological perspectives on the development of coronary heart disease.
Psychological science has new opportunities to have major input into the understanding of the development of coronary heart disease. This article provides an overview of advances in understanding the etiology of heart disease, recently applied technologies for measuring early stages of heart disease, and an accumulating base of evidence on the psychosocial predictors of clinical and subclinical coronary disease. It suggests that it is now time to develop conceptual models that integrate our understanding of separate psychosocial predictors. It offers and provides preliminary evidence for a model that integrates socioeconomic status, environmental stress, and person-level factors from a life span perspective.
Matthews
Karen A
KA
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. matthewska@upmc.edu
D000339:Affect; D001363:Awards and Prizes; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D014434:Type A Personality