Patients With Heart Disease Benefited by Stress Management Program

A cognitive behavioral therapy program focusing on stress management decreases the risk of recurrent heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in patients with heart disease, says a new study. Mats Gulliksson and colleagues at Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden, conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) among 362 men and women discharged from the hospital after a coronary heart disease event within the previous 12 months.

A group of 192 patients were randomly assigned to participate in CBT.

"The program has five key components with specific goals-education, self-monitoring, skills training, cognitive restructuring and spiritual development-and is focused on stress management, coping with stress and reducing experience of daily stress, time urgency and hostility," the authors wrote.

The therapy was delivered in 20 two-hour sessions during one year, in small groups separated by sex. The other 170 patients received traditional care.

Patients in the CBT group had a 41 percent lower rate of both fatal and non-fatal heart events, 45 percent fewer recurrent heart attacks and a non-significantly lower rate of death than patients in the traditional care group.

Attending a higher proportion of the therapy sessions was associated with a further reduction in risk.

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The study appeared in the January 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. (ANI)

Self-control could turn toddlers into healthier and wealthier adults:Study|Sci-tech[Washington{Washington, Jan 25 (ANI): Children with the most self-control at the age of three become healthiest, wealthiest and successful adults, according to a new study.

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However, kids with lower self-control scores are more likely to have health problems, substance dependence, financial troubles and a criminal record by the time they reached age 32.

The long-term study by Duke University psychologists found that children's self-control skills predicted their health, wealth and criminal history later in life.

Researchers Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi tracked more than 1,000 New Zealand children and analysed their self-control using assessments by parents, observers, teachers and the children themselves.

Self-control was assessed by several measures including lack of persistence, low frustration tolerance, difficulty sticking with a task, hyperactivity, restless, inability to think and impulsivity.

The researchers found that children scoring lowest on measures of self-control had more gum disease and sexually transmitted diseases; were more likely to be overweight, have high cholesterol or high blood pressure and signs of inflammation; to be single parents; have a criminal record; and were more likely to be addicted to cigarettes, alcohol and harder drugs.

However, they also found that children whose self-control increased with age tended to have better adult outcomes than initially predicted, showing that self-control can change.

Caspi and Moffitt also looked at 500 fraternal twins in Britain and found that the sibling with a lower self-control score at age 5 had a greater likelihood of poor school performance, beginning smoking or exhibiting antisocial behaviours at age 12.

"This shows that self-control is important by itself, apart from all other factors that siblings share, such as their parents and home life," said Caspi.

The New Zealand children with low-self control were more likely to make poor choices as adolescents, including taking up smoking, having unplanned pregnancies and dropping out of school.

Even the low self-control individuals who finished high school as non-smokers without kids showed poorer outcomes at age 32.

The study appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source-ANI