New personality's aspects in the acute coronary heart disease

pp 437-439

Abstract

Ninety three consecutive patients of both sex were admitted ir our coronary care unit with acute ischemic heart disease. Mean age was 56 years. A semistructured interview was performed in each case including a BIQ I test to assess alexithymia (without words for fellings). High levels of alexithymia with mean of 40, standard deviation ± 7 and a variation coefficient of 18 %. Correlation between the number of risk factors present (smoking, high blood pressure, hypercolesterolemia and diabetes) and alexithymia was negative, showing an index of 0.0569, being the p <0.05. Although statistically not significant, there is a clear tendency toward the existence of a higher level of alexithymia in patients with few or no risk factors, therefore suggesting that alexithymia should be taken in account as another factor in the production of acute ischemic heart disease.