Psychophysiological stress testing in postinfarction patients. Psychological correlates of cardiovascular arousal and abnormal cardiac responses.

The psychophysiological responses to two mental stress tests (mental arithmetic and an interactive concentration task) were assessed in 168 unmedicated, male, postinfarction patients 36-69 years old. Patients also completed a standard battery of psychological tests. Psychophysiological responses were generally unrelated to age and education. Comparison of patients scoring high (more than 75%) and low (less than 25%) relative to the normal population on psychological measures indicated that heart rate and blood pressure responses to mental stress tests were significantly greater in those reporting low than in those reporting high neuroticism. The study population was subsequently divided into high, medium, and low cardiovascular responders on the basis of rate-pressure product reactions to the two stress tests. The three cardiovascular response groups did not differ in age, interval between myocardial infarction and stress testing, ejection fraction, incidence of exercise-induced ischemia, or ischemic signs during Holter monitoring. However, the high cardiovascular responders were more likely to manifest possible or definite electrocardiographic signs of ischemia or significant arrhythmia during mental stress testing than were the medium or low cardiovascular responders (50% versus 19.6% and 7%, respectively). High cardiovascular responders also reported lower levels of trait anxiety, neuroticism, psychophysiological symptoms, and depression.