Negative Emotion and Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

This article reviews literature regarding the influence of negative emotions, specifically depression, anger/hostility, and anxiety on coronary heart disease (CHD). For each domain, evidence is presented demonstrating the deleterious effects of negative affect on health outcomes in patients with CHD. This is followed by a discussion of the manner in which emotional factors are transduced into cardiac health risk factors. The pathophysiological mechanisms by which negative emotions have been found to exert an influence on CHD are highlighted. Finally, a general overview of the outcomes of interventions designed to ameliorate the effects of these negative emotional states on cardiovascular health are reviewed. Several treatment studies are described in detail for the purpose of elaborating the types of multicomponent interventions that attempt to address negative emotions in populations with CHD.