title: The effects of a forgiveness intervention on patients with coronary artery disease.
abstract: This research assesses the effects of a psychology of forgiveness pilot study on anger-recall stress induced changes in myocardial perfusion, forgiveness and related variables. Thirty-two patients were administered baseline rest and anger-recall stress imaging studies, and 17 of these participants who demonstrated anger-recall stress induced myocardial perfusion defects (forgiveness group, n = 9; control group, n = 8) were randomly assigned to a series of 10 weekly interpersonal forgiveness or control therapy sessions with a trained psychologist, and underwent additional anger-recall stress myocardial perfusion nuclear imaging studies post-test and at 10-week follow-up. Patients assigned to the forgiveness group showed significantly fewer anger-recall induced myocardial perfusion defects from pre-test to the 10-week follow-up as well as significantly greater gains in forgiveness from pre-test to post-test and from pre-test to follow-up compared to the control group. Forgiveness intervention may be an effective means of reducing anger-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Martina A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Waltman
authors.forename: Douglas C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Catherine T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Coyle
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Enright
authors.forename: Anthony C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Holter
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: M Swoboda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000786:Anger; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult