Myocardial Infarction May Induce Positive Changes in Life-style and in the Quality of Life

Abstract

Eighty-four male patients with a mean age of 56.4 years were subjected to a semistructured interview 12-21 weeks after acute myocardial infarction. Twenty-eight individuals (group A) perceived a considerably or somewhat improved total life situation, 39 patients an unchanged (group B) and 17 patients (group C) a somewhat or considerably worsened total life situation. In all groups there were appreciable alterations with respect to stress on the job, physical activity and intake of fat/calories. Sixty per cent had reduced or quit smoking, and 19% had reduced their alcohol consumption. Fifty per cent of the patients perceived an increased gratitude at being alive. Similar recordings were found regarding "joy of life", value of hobbies, family and having good health. Concern associated with a reduced health status was experienced as the most distressing consequence of MI. There were no significant differences between groups A, B and C with respect to severity of the MI in contrast to the number of "psychiatric cases" (GHQ). The study concludes that it is considered important also to discover and reinforce possible positive changes after MI.

Posttraumatic growth in coronary artery disease outpatients: Relationship to degree of trauma and health service use

“…Our results regarding female gender are consistent with the recent metaanalysis [34] demonstrating that women report greater PTG than men. However, previous studies in cardiac samples have generally found no relationship between PTG and sociodemographic characteristics [12,16,20,21,35]. The lack of relationship between PTG and patient characteristics may be due to the small sample size of those previous studies, particularly considering sociodemographic factors are shown to relate to PTG in the context of other health-related traumas [14,15].…”

“…PTG is shown to relate consistently to adaptive coping strategies [20] and positive health behaviours [12,21,22], which may explain its association with positive outcomes. Indeed, a qualitative study of female cardiac patients revealed 'Getting Health Care' as one of the four themes which emerged from the open-ended question of whether participants experienced positive effects post-myocardial infarction [19].…”

Positive psychological states and health behaviors in acute coronary syndrome patients: A qualitative study

“…Two reports by Laerum and colleagues (Laerum et al, 1987; Laerum et al, 1988) describe the results of qualitative interviews with male post-MI patients 3 to 5 months post-MI. The authors found that a meaningful proportion of patients experienced gratitude, enjoyment of recreational activities, and love toward family.…”

A Positive Psychology Intervention for Patients with an Acute Coronary Syndrome: Treatment Development and Proof-of-Concept Trial

“…For example, we selected a gratitude letter because gratitude is common post-ACS (Laerum et al 1988), because post-ACS patients in our qualitative interviews felt that exercises focused on gratitude may be useful, and because this exercise (in a cohort of medical psychiatry patients) received the highest ratings of utility out of 9 total exercises (Huffman et al 2014a). We chose the personal strengths exercise for similar reasons: post-ACS patients had been particularly interested in exercises focused on cultivating strengths, and this exercise had performed well in our prior work.…”