Dynamics of psychoemotional characteristics in patients with coronary heart disease after coronary artery bypass graft surgery: Russian sampling specifics

Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is known to be one of the most important surgical methods for treating coronary heart disease (CHD) which significantly reduces mortality and improves the quality of life of patients. In most cases, surgical intervention is a serious lifethreatening event and also a strong stress factor that affects the patient’s mental state. For this reason, there is an urgent need for psychological support for patients with CHD who are preparing for CABG. Therefore, when developing rehabilitation programmes and optimising psychodiagnostic and psychocorrectional measures, it is very important to study the psychoemotional characteristics of patients with CHD prior to CABG surgery. The objective of the present research was to study the dynamics of psychoemotional characteristics (including manifestations of asthenia, anxiety and psychopathological symptoms) in the patients with CHD during their stay in the cardiology hospital prior to CABG surgery. The study used a clinical-psychological method and an experimentalpsychological method, including the “Scale of Asthenic State” (SAS), “Integrative Anxiety Test” (IAT), “Symptom Check List-90-Revised” (SCL-90-R), and the “Big Five Personality Test”. A comparative study of the asthenic state in the patients with CHD before and after myocardial revascularisation during inpatient treatment revealed the presence of a more pronounced asthenic component in the postoperative period as compared with the results obtained at the preoperative stage. The patients with CHD prior to CABG during inpatient treatment had a higher level of anxiety as compared with the postoperative stage, especially regarding the general level of state anxiety, including emotional discomfort and social defence reactions. In the postoperative period, a higher rate of the asthenic component was observed in the structure of state anxiety. A comparative study of the severity of psychopathological symptoms in the patients with CHD prior to CABG surgery and during the postoperative period recorded more intense manifestations of anxiety, obsessiveness and compulsiveness as well as paranoid tendencies before the operation. In the structure of personal characteristics of the patients with CHD during their stay in the cardiology hospital prior to CABG surgery, the lowest indicators, on average, were “Agreeableness” and “Conscientiousness”. The results obtained are crucial for planning psychological intervention for patients with CHD.