Effectiveness of Cardiovascular disease Specific Psychotherapy [CSP] on the stress, anxiety and depression of heart disease patients

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is one of the greatest widespread disease and the prevalence of it is increasing worldwide. Our understanding of the role of psychological factors in the incidence of the cardiovascular system has rapidly increased in the past few years. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cardiovascular disease specific psychotherapy [CSP] on the stress, anxiety and depression of heart disease patients.Method: This research is a semi-experimental with experimental and control groups. To determine the number of the sample, at first, 30 participants from Rasol-e-Akram Hospital in Rasht were selected and were randomly assigned to two groups [cardiovascular specific psychotherapy] and control. DASS-21 scale were administered to both groups before and after training. Cardiovascular specific psychotherapy sessions were arranged for patients in 25 sessions twice a week for 2:30 hours. For controlling the intervention variable, multivariate analysis of covariance has been used in addiction to descriptive statistics. Data were analyzed through spss.20 software.Results: The results of MANCOVA showed that training significantly reduced the stress, anxiety and depression in the experimental group as compared with the control group.Conclusion: Results showed the cardiovascular disease specific psychotherapy [CSP] effects on the amount of stress, anxiety and depression in heart disease patients and this method can be used with usual medical care in the improvement and rehabilitation in cardiovascular diseases.The study is helpful for psychologists and other mental health professionals to help cardiovascular patients prevent the adverse effects of stress, anxiety and depression and is thus highly applicable to patients who have already become the victims of the stress related problems like anxiety and depression. Keywords: Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Cardiovascular Diseases, Psychotherapy