title: [Resilience in chronic heart failure].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study investigated correlates of resilience in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients suffering from a high somatic symptom burden and/or a clinical relevant depression. Furthermore, the resilience of the sample was compared to a representative sample of the German general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  186 patients with CHF and high symptom burden (82 depressed and 104 non depressed) were investigated. Resilience was assessed using the Resilience Scale from Wagnild and Young. For the comparison of resilience, the sample of the general population (372 persons) was matched against the CHF sample regarding the variables age and gender.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant positive association of resilience with age and social support, whereas hopelessness and the inability to understand and describe emotions in the self (alexithymia) correlated negatively with resilience. Comparison with the general population revealed a significantly lower resilience in depressed CHF patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Resilience seems to be predominantly associated to psychosocial variables such as age or social support rather than to disease-specific parameters such as left ventricular ejection fraction or NYHA functional class. Our finding that resilience is especially low in depressed CHF patients underscores the clinical relevance of depression in CHF, necessitating further research regarding the improvement of resilience and depression.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemeine Innere und Psychosomatische Medizin, Medizinische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lossnitzer
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemeine Innere und Psychosomatische Medizin, Medizinische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemeine Innere und Psychosomatische Medizin, Medizinische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.affiliation: Abteilung für Kardiologie, Angiologie und Pneumologie, Medizinische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frankenstein
authors.affiliation: Institut für Psychosoziale Medizin und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Jena.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rosendahl
authors.affiliation: Institut für Psychosoziale Medizin und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Jena.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leppert
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemeine Innere und Psychosomatische Medizin, Medizinische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Allgemeine Innere und Psychosomatische Medizin, Medizinische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Schultz
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012944:Social Support; D013223:Statistics as Topic