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Stress-Induced Cardiomyopathy and Psychological Wellbeing 1 Year After an Acute Event

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Abstract

Stress cardiomyopathy (SCM) typically presents similar symptoms to acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, these symptoms differ when it comes to a transient and completely reversible myocardial dysfunction, which is frequently precipitated by acute stressful events, occurring in the absence of plaque rupture and coronary thrombosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQL) and emotional burden subsequent to cardiac events in SCM patients. Thirty-seven SCM patients were compared with 37 matched AMI patients. All selected patients were assessed for HRQL and psychological distress at baseline and 1-year after the acute event. After controlling for covariates, scores on the Psychological General Well Being Index indicated that depressed mood had increased in both groups, but the increase for SCM patients was greater than for AMI patients. The AMI group displayed greater decreases than the SCM in physical quality of life and in total cardiac-related health quality of life. The percentage of patients with psychological distress increased significantly more in the SCM group than in the AMI group, and it made no difference whether the triggering event was emotional or physical. Our results suggest that, despite the more favorable medical prognosis of SCM patients, their cardiac condition being transient and resolving completely in few weeks, the psychological impact associated with their condition is more negative 1 year later than in the case of AMI patients whose medical prognosis is less favorable, and this difference is independent of type of trigger event.

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Abbreviations

SCM:

Stress cardiomyopathy

AMI:

Acute myocardial infarction

PGWBI:

Psychological General Well Being Index

HRQL:

Health-related quality of life

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Acknowledgments

We thank the primary health care practitioners who took part in this study.

Conflict of interest

Angelo Compare, Enzo Grossi, Riccardo Bigi, Riccardo Proietti, Edo Shonin, Pedro Silva Orrego, and Lydia Poole declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients prior to being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bergamo, Piazzale S. Agostino 2, 24129, Bergamo, Italy

    Angelo Compare

  2. Centro Diagnostico Italiano (CDI), Milan, Italy

    Enzo Grossi

  3. Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University School of Medicine, Milan, Italy

    Riccardo Bigi

  4. Department of Cardiology, S. Andrew Hospital, Vercelli, Italy

    Riccardo Proietti

  5. Division of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Edo Shonin

  6. Interventional Cardiology, A. De Gasperis Department, Niguarda Hospital, Milan, Italy

    Pedro Silva Orrego

  7. Psychobiology Group, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK

    Lydia Poole

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  1. Angelo Compare
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  2. Enzo Grossi
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Correspondence to Angelo Compare.

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Compare, A., Grossi, E., Bigi, R. et al. Stress-Induced Cardiomyopathy and Psychological Wellbeing 1 Year After an Acute Event. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 21, 81–91 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-013-9380-1

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