title: Psychological correlates, allostatic overload and clinical course in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a key treatment option for both primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death. Despite this, there is a growing number of studies showing that ICD is often associated with post-implantation deleterious psychosocial effects, even in the absence of medical complications. Knowledge about the predictive role of pre-ICD psychological profile is scant. The present research aims to describe patients' pre-ICD psychological profile, focusing on acute and chronic distress, such as anxiety, depression, type D personality, psychosomatic syndromes and allostatic overload (AO), and to evaluate if these psychological variables could affect ICD outcomes and survival.
  
  
  METHODS
  117 consecutive patients (74.4% males; mean age=63.1±13.7years) underwent psychological assessment prior to ICD implantation. Data on ICD-related complications and death were collected up to 26months after the intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At baseline, 36.8% of the sample had anxiety and 17.9% depression. Among psychosomatic syndromes, psychological factors affecting medical conditions were the most frequent (37.6%). 12.8% presented with type D personality, whereas 16.2% showed moderate AO and 4.3% severe AO. 25.6% of the patients had post-ICD complications and 6% died. Severe AO was the only predictor of survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings show that a reliable evaluation of stress and the inability to cope with it (allostatic overload) may help to identify patients at higher risk of post-ICD complications and death. Such sensitive index, more than traditional psychiatric diagnostic criteria, may help the physician to identify easily manifestations of distress and clinically relevant information, which could affect medical illness outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: sara.gostoli2@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gostoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonomo
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Bellaria Hospital, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Renzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roncuzzi
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biffi
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boriani
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rafanelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D052636:Allostasis / Q000502:physiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Allostatic overload; Anxiety; Depression; Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR); Implantable cardioverter defibrillator; Type D personality