Psychotherapeutic intervention in angina: I. A critical review

This paper considers the literature on factors found to be associated with angina and pseudoangina, and attempts to delineate those psychosocial characteristics that might distinguish angina patients from either nonanginal CAD patients or from non-CAD normals. A cluster of characteristics emerges from both retrospective and prospective studies suggesting greater affective lability, "neuroticism," and perhaps physiologic reactivity than in either comparison group. The literature also suggests that learning and suggestion may play important roles in generating specific precipitants for anginal attacks. The literature on psychosocial intervention in anginal syndromes is almost entirely anecdotal, allowing few firm conclusions to be drawn, but suggesting the possible efficacy of certain behavioral, didactic, and supportive-psychodynamic interventions.