Heart-focused Anxiety in Patients With Heart Failure and ICD

In patients with heart failure and implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) psychological comorbidities such as heart focused anxiety and depression often occur. These psychological factors may have negative effects on compliance as well as on the development of the cardiac disease and therefore on rehospitalization and mortality rates. A personality structure where negative affect is paired with social inhibition (the inability to communicate ones feelings to others) can often be found in patients with cardiovascular disease. This so-called type D personality is also associated with a worse prognosis. It is of interest whether, and if so in what way, the implantation of an ICD can affect the psychological well-being and through that the prognosis of the heart failure patient. The goal of this study is therefore to investigate the effect of ICD implantation on heart-focused anxiety, depression, possible traumatization and quality of life in patients with heart failure with consideration of a possible moderating effect of the type D personality. Furthermore, the impact of the above stated psychological factors on rehospitalization and mortality, as well as on frequency of shocks shall be examined. Vice versa, the frequency of shocks or the impact of being shocked at all on psychological factors is of interest.