[Effectiveness of Psychocardiological Care in Inpatient Rehabilitation: A Pilot Study]

Abstract

An integrative patient-centered care concept is increasingly demanded for treatment of cardiac patients with concomitant mental disorders. The present study aims to investigate the effect of an integrated concept of psycho-cardiac care (PK) versus a monodisciplinary cardiac (K) or psychosomatic (PSO) care. Patients were examined at baseline (T0), at the time of discharge from the rehabilitation program (T1) and after 6 month (T2). General anxiety, depression (HADS), cardiac anxiety (HAF) and quality of life (SF-12) were evaluated using computer-assisted questionnaires. A total of 93 patients were included (PK: n=37, 55.5 years SD=8.0, 43.2% female; K: n=32, 53.6 years SD=8.2, 34.4% female; PSO: n=24, 55.5 years SD=5.0, 45.8% female). Patients in the PK-group showed a significant reduction of heart-focused anxiety (HAF fear p=0.004) and a significant improvement in quality of life (SF-12 physical p=0.034) during follow-up. In contrast, these parameters remained unchanged in patients in the K- and PSO-groups. The results indicate that cardiac-patients with concomitant mental disorders benefit only from an integrated psycho-cardiac treatment concept. The findings provide first data to psycho-cardiac treatment in stationary rehabilitation and support previous clinical experiences. But further research is required to show the advantage of a psycho-cardiac concept towards monodisciplinary care.