Process Model of Emotion Regulation in Patients with Coronary Heart Diseases, Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator Recipients and Normal Subjects

Background and Objective: Studies indicate that emotions are effective psychological factors in cardiovascular diseases that may contribute to the incidence or exacerbation of the disease. Increase in level of negative emotions is associated with deterioration of cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this study was to compare the process of emotion regulation strategies in cardiovascular patients and normal individuals. Materials and Methods: In this causal-comparative study, 90 subjects were assigned to three groups of 30 persons including patients with coronary heart diseases, implantable cardioverter defibrillator recipients and normal subjects. Convenience sampling was used for patients who had referred to a private clinic and Lavassani Hospital in Tehran. They completed the process model of emotion regulation questionnaire and the data were fed to SPSS to be analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. Results: The results pointed out significant differences between two formerly mentioned patient groups and normal subjects (p<0.001). The findings asserted that patients with coronary heart diseases and implantable cardioverter defibrillator recipients used suppression of negative emotional experience strategy more than normal individuals, while they used reappraisal strategy less frequently. Conclusion: Psychological preventive interventions with an emphasis on cognitive emotion regulation strategies in cardiovascular patients could bring about effective results.