Positive Psychology Interventions for Patients With Heart Disease: A Preliminary Randomized Trial

Abstract

Background: Positive psychologic characteristics have been linked to superior cardiac outcomes.

Objective: Accordingly, in this exploratory study, we assessed positive psychology interventions in patients who had recently undergone a procedure to treat cardiovascular disease.

Method: Participants were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 3 different 6-week face-to-face interventions or a wait-list control condition. We assessed intervention feasibility and compared changes in psychologic outcome measures postintervention (7wk) and at follow-up (15wk) between intervention and control participants. Across the interventions, 74% of assigned sessions were completed.

Results: When comparing outcomes between interventions and control participants (N = 55 total), there were no between-group differences post-intervention, but at follow-up intervention participants had greater improvements in happiness (β = 14.43, 95% CI: 8.66-20.2, p < 0.001), depression (β = -3.87, 95% CI: -7.72 to 0.02, p = 0.049), and hope (β = 7.12, 95% CI: 1.25-13.00, p =0.017), with moderate-large effect sizes. Efficacy of the 3 interventions was similar.

Conclusions: Future studies are needed to identify an optimal positive psychology intervention for cardiac patients.

Keywords: coronary artery bypass graft; coronary artery disease; depression; heart disease; optimism; positive psychology.