Stress Management with Cardiac Patients

Abstract

The first quote above is attributed to Dr. John Hunter, the esteemed cardiovascular surgeon and pathologist of the eighteenth century; the second was delivered in 1897 by Dr. William Osler as part of his “Lectures on Angina Pectoris and Allied States,” and describes the demise of this pioneering predecessor. Each quote provides a window on what we mean when we talk about stress. What stress is and how we manage it are two questions at the forefront of cardiovascular behavioral medicine, and the above quotations highlight the importance of these issues. In the following chapter, we will first provide a brief and select historical context that focuses on what we believe to be important contributions to how our thinking about stress and its management have evolved. We next provide a model for our understanding of stress that highlights what we believe to be the key elements and foci of stress management interventions. We follow with a description of various stress management techniques, with both a brief empirical grounding and a description of how that technique is accomplished.