Influence of the normal personality dimension of neuroticism on chest pain symptoms and coronary artery disease
Abstract
For at least the last 200 years it has been suspected that somatic manifestations of psychological distress play a role in the medical recognition and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD). The cardiovascular system is intricately linked to the experience of emotion, and these links may explain how and when neuroticism can cloud the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. A possible source of anginal symptoms in the absence of angiographically documented CAD is high standing on the personality dimension of neuroticism, which is a broad dimension of individual differences in the tendency to experience negative, distressing emotions and to possess associated behavioral and cognitive traits. A brief review of the clinical cardiologic literature on chest pain is presented, with special attention to distinguishing true angina pectoris from pseudoangina and related syndromes. After a brief description of the major dimensions of normal personality, especially the domain of neuroticism, empirical evidence is reviewed on 1,191 adult men and women who 10 years earlier had made chest pain or discomfort reports part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The findings illustrate neuroticism's links to illness and disease...Continue Reading
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