The course of anxiety and depression in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

A semilongitudinal study was designed to follow-up the course of anxiety and depression in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. The focus was on possible effects of gender and age on variations in both mean level and interindividual differences over time. At two timepoints before and two after surgery, 217 patients completed self-report questionnaires. Multivariate testing revealed an overall decrease in mean levels of anxiety and depression in the postoperative period but different trends for men and women. Compared with men, women reported more anxiety and depression, both pre- and postoperatively, but showed a relatively stronger decrease in the early postoperative period. Regarding variations in interindividual differences over time, multivariate testing revealed different trends of depression for men and women. Women appeared to be most homogeneous in the early days after surgery, whereas interindividual differences for men showed a stable trend.