Interv Akut Kardiol. 2014;13(3):120-124

Is a predisposition to neurotic disorders a significant predictor of heart disease?

Blanka Šestáková¹, Marta Zárybnická², Dana Brabcová³, Jiří Kohout⁴

¹ Anesteziologicko-resuscitační oddělení Fakultní nemocnice Plzeň

² Kardiochirurgické oddělení Fakultní nemocnice Plzeň

³ Katedra psychologie, Fakulta pedagogická, Západočeská univerzita v Plzni

⁴ Katedra fyziky, Fakulta aplikovaných věd, Západočeská univerzita v Plzni

The aim of the study: The aim of our initial study was to investigate whether predisposition to neurotic disorders is depended on

whether the patient completed the questionnaire before or after planned heart surgery, and to subsequently determine whether patients

with heart disease were more susceptible to neurotic disorders than the general population.

Material and methods: A survey was conducted on a group of 70 patients at the University Hospital in Plzen. Fortyeight-item Middlesex

Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) was used to measure the predisposition to neurotic disorders.

Results: This survey did not show a statistically significant difference between the predisposition to neurotic disorders measured by the

MHQ questionnaire before and after planned heart surgery (the p-value of the appropriate test was higher than 0.05 in all scales). The

data showed that predisposition to neurotic disorders was a significant predictor of heart disease when the patients reached total score

of MHQ of 33.77 ± 11.10 in comparison with 24.8 ± 11.4 which is the value reported for whole population (the p-value of the appropriate

test was lower than 0.001). Especially significant differences were observed in the scales measuring predisposition to phobic anxiety,

depression and obsessive behavior.

Conclusions: The results indicated that the MHQ questionnaire measured predisposition to neuroticism as a personality trait and virtually

ignored the actual psychological state of the patient which may have been affected, e.g. by concerns about the planned operation.

Moreover, it was found that patients with heart disease exhibit significantly higher predisposition to phobic anxiety, depression and

obsessive behavior than are reported for whole population.

Keywords: Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire, neurotic disorders, heart disease, depression, phobic anxiety

Published: October 1, 2014  Show citation