Abstract
We investigated the relationship between Type A behavior pattern (Type A) and depression in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) to clarify the characteristics of Japanese Type A. The subjects were 212 patients with IHD (IHD group) and 94 healthy individuals (control group) . The behavior pattern was evaluated by Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) Form C and depression by Depression Related Personality Trait Scale in both IHD and control groups. Depression Related Personality Trait Scale was developed by Yoshimatsu et al. to evaluate the depression related personality (DRP). Previous reports assumed that DRP was present when the total score was in excess of 55 points (out of 76). The Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) was also administered to 61 patients with IHD to evaluate the severity of depressive symptoms. The results were statistically analyzed by the Student's t-test, the x^2-test and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The incidence of Type A was significantly higher in IHD group than in control group, as was the incidence of DRP. In IHD patients with Type A, the incidence of DRP (39.7%) was significantly higher than in those (20.8%) with non-Type A. Similar results were obtained in the control group. DRP score of IHD patients with Type A (52.2±8.8,mean±SD) was significantly higher than that of those with non-Type A (45.4±8.7). JAS score of IHD patients with DRP (4.O±9.4) was also significantly higher than that of those with non-DRP (-1.3±8.l). In both IHD and control groups, JAS scores were significantly positively correlated with DRP scores. In 61 patients with IHD, there was no significant difference in SDS scores between Type A and non-Type A, and between DRP and non-DRP. It is interesting to note that no significant correlation were observed between SDS and JAS scores, and between SDS and DRP scores in IHD patients. Moreover, no significant relationship was observed in other coronary risk factors (systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides. HDL, FBS and uric acid) between Type A and non-Type A, and no relationship except uric acid between DRP and non-DRP. These results indicate that Type A is closely related to depression related personality in patients with IHD, but that there were no significant relationship between Type A and depressive symptoms.
