Hanyang Med Rev.  2014 May;34(2):72-76. 10.7599/hmr.2014.34.2.72.

Type A Personality and Coronary Artery Disease

• Shin JH

• KMID: 2284408
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7599/hmr.2014.34.2.72

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases are well known to be associated with several psychiatric illnesses. Most of the related psychological problems were type A personality, stress related problems, anxiety, and depressive illnesses. The dimensions of the associations are various from risk factor to triggering factor. With recent advances in the understanding of the mechanisms of heart attacks, the pathogenesis model by type A personality or depression might be associated with both longstanding atherogenic components or risk factors and decisive momentum to trigger the heart attack. Accordingly, in addition to the management of the unhealthy behavior related to the type A personality, intervention for the acute psychologic crisis might be equally important. Moreover, the association between the type A personality and cardiovascular diseases is observed in the primary prevention as well as secondary prevention studies. Due to the nature of the associated psychological problems, the background of the social environments seems to be deeply involved in the associations. The understanding of the complexity of the association is the key to further studies.

Keyword

Type A Personality; Cardiovascular Disease; Risk Factors

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Cardiovascular Diseases
Coronary Artery Disease*
Depression
Heart
Primary Prevention
Risk Factors
Secondary Prevention
Social Environment
Type A Personality*

Figure

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  Fig. 1 A hypothetical schema to explain the contributions conferred by action-emotion complex in response to stressful situations on the cardiovascular events.

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