Stress management program benefits patients with heart disease

January 25th, 2011 - 3:12 pm ICT by ANI  

Washington, Jan 25 (ANI): Scientists have found that a cognitive behavioral therapy program focusing on stress management decreases the risk of recurrent heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in patients with heart disease.

Mats Gulliksson and colleagues at Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden, conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) among 362 men and women discharged from the hospital after a coronary heart disease event within the previous 12 months.

A group of 192 patients were randomly assigned to participate in CBT.

“The program has five key components with specific goals-education, self-monitoring, skills training, cognitive restructuring and spiritual development-and is focused on stress management, coping with stress and reducing experience of daily stress, time urgency and hostility,” the authors wrote.

The therapy was delivered in 20 two-hour sessions during one year, in small groups separated by sex. The other 170 patients received traditional care.

Patients in the CBT group had a 41 percent lower rate of both fatal and non-fatal heart events, 45 percent fewer recurrent heart attacks and a non-significantly lower rate of death than patients in the traditional care group.

Attending a higher proportion of the therapy sessions was associated with a further reduction in risk.

The study appeared in the January 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. (ANI)

Related Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Health Science |

Subscribe