Distress or illness? A study of psychological symptoms after myocardial infarction.

Three groups of patients were identified during a study of men who had recently suffered an acute myocardial infarction: those with psychiatric morbidity antedating the infarction and those with no significant psychopathology. Compared to the other two groups, patients with psychiatric morbidity before the infarction were more likely to be unmarried, unemployed and to have received previous psychiatric treatment. They also obtained higher scores for neuroticism and psychoticism on personality assessment. Patients whose symptoms have been precipitated by the infarction resembled the psychologically healthy group with regard to their demographic characteristics and personality. Their symptoms tended to be transient, improving without special psychiatric treatment.