title: Type a Personality, Stress, Anxiety and Health Locus of Control in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction.
abstract: The aim of this study was to define the level of patient exposure to stress in the previous 5 years before acute myocardial infarction (AMI), personality type A assessment, ways of coping with stressful situations, health locus of control and the grade of anxiety (as state and personality trait).
  
  
  
  118 patients who were consecutively hospitalized during 8 months in our Coronary care unit due to AMI, took part in the study. As controls we examined 103 healthy male volunteers (mean age 60.8±2.93 years).
  
  
  
  AMI patients presented with higher degree of behavior corresponding to type A personality (F=18.756, p=0.000), and also showed higher degree of anxiety, as state and personality trait (F=23.634, p=0.001; F=19.253, p=0.000), in comparison to healthy controls. Also, AMI patients were significantly more often coping emotionally in stressful situations than control subjects (F=21.354, p=0.000), and they had significantly higher external locus of control compared to healthy subjects (F=13.284, p=0.001). They often considered that they were not able to control their health, namely they evaluated their ability to control their health as weak and were much more often directed to cope with intense emotions (r=0.24, p=0.002).
  
  
  
  The study showed that AMI patients psychologically differed from the healthy controls, indicating that they were prone to maladaptive behavioral patterns which could favor development and complicate course of coronary artery disease.
authors.affiliation: Department for Cardiovascular Diseases, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Kišpatićeva 12, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, davor.milicic@kbc-zagreb.hr; d.milicic@mail.inet.hr.
authors.forename: Davor
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miličić
authors.forename: Lovorka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brajković
authors.forename: Jana Ljubas
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Maček
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andrić
authors.forename: Žarko
authors.initials: Ž
authors.lastname: Ardalić
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Buratović
authors.forename: Darko
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marčinko
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002605:Character; D017523:Croatia; D000066498:Emotional Adjustment; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D014434:Type A Personality