Associations of type D personality with amplitude-time ECG parameters

Abstract

Negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI) inherent in type D personalities produce chronic distress, which leads to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Currently, a search is underway for mechanisms that mediate the psychosomatic connections of a type D personality. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of amplitude-time ECG parameters in type D personalities and to establish associations of amplitude-time ECG patterns in a non-cardiological sample of women with type D indicators and its components — NA and SI. ECG records were obtained from 68 women with gynecological pathology without a history of CVD and at the time of the study, and all of them completed the questionnaire DS 14. Personality type D was confirmed in 39.7%, on the ECG recording in this group, the average amplitude of the R wave, the duration of the QT and RR intervals turned out to be significantly higher than in individuals without type D, and the duration of the QRS complex was significantly lower in the group of respondents with higher scores against a group with low scores. The group with higher NA values showed a significantly higher R wave amplitude, and with higher SI values, a significantly shorter QRS duration than the corresponding groups with low values of these D-type components. More than a third of a non-cardiac sample of women exhibits type D personality. Analysis of amplitude-time ECG patterns in type D personalities indicates increased ventricular excitability and excessive sympathetic reactivity. A specific pathogenic contribution of the synergism of negative affectivity and social inhibition of the expression of negative feelings to the functional organization of electrophysiological processes in the myocardium was found. Amplitude-time ECG patterns of type D individuals indicate an autonomous imbalance of cardiovascular reactivity at the basis of increased vulnerability to CVD.