Cognitive model of depression and the myocardial infarction patient

Events that trigger depression following myocardial infarction may include separation from loved ones, financial loss, and physical disease. The susceptibility to depression will depend on how successful the patient has been in controlling stressful and personally threatening situations. Once depression occurs, patients may process information in a distorted way. Consequently, depression becomes the affective result of inappropriate negative appraisals of experiences. These cognitive distortions center around three outlooks: negative view of self, negative view of experiences and a negative view of the future. This article outlines how depressed patients may distort information resulting in these negative viewpoints. Methods of identifying depression and intervening with appropriate nursing interventions, which will assist with the management of depression, are described.