[Ischemic cardiopathies and psychologic pattern in three male cohorts (author's transl)]

Three surveys have been completed on 3.202 male subjects aged 40-59 yr. according to a common protocole; mean ages are 48,3 +/- 10,8 in Brussels-Ghent, 48,5 +/- 8,9 in Marseilles and 43,9 +/- 1,7 in Paris. A higher prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) was observed in Brussels (18,2%) as compared to Marseilles (10,5%) and Paris (5,8%). Psychological pattern has been defined according to the answers on 2 questionnaires: a French adaptation of the Bortner Scale and a combination of the questionnaire of Sandler and Hazari with the Eysenck Personality Inventory (S.H.-E.P.I.). The data suggest that the psychological pattern is independent of the other coronary risk factors. In this retrospective study, the score of neuroticism is significantly higher in subjects with CHD (angina, myocardial infarction or coronary insufficiency on the ECG), as compared to normal controls. The score on the Bortner Scale being highly correlated with the score of neuroticism, the former disappears in the discriminant function analysis. The psychological variables do not discriminate normal subjects from those with CHD according to their ECG, but without clinical symptoms of angina. In this study, neuroticism and less so obsessionality has a discriminating power between "coronary free" and "non-free" subjects. This power disappears in the absence of clinical symptoms (angina). As the 3 cohorts are followed during at least 5 years, the predictive power of neuroticism for CHD will be examined in a prospective manner.