Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women, and coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease, often leading to heart attacks.Over a long period of time, CAD can weaken the heart muscle, causing heart failure and arrhythmias.Three well established events which occur in CAD are an over activation of the sympathetic nervous system, increased inflammation and psychological distress.Biofeedback assisted stress management (BFSM) is a form of stress management that allows one to see how their physiology changes, in real time, as they either become stressed or relaxed.The patient is coached by the biofeedback therapist on strategies for reducing stress while the patient can see how effective the strategies are by looking at a computer screen in front of them.We hypothesized that in patients with CAD, BFSM training could help positively affect an over activation of the sympathetic nervous system, increased inflammation and psychological distress.To test this hypothesis, 19 patients enrolled in the cardiac rehabilitation program at the Cleveland Clinic were separated into a biofeedback group (BF) and a usual care (UC) group.All 19 enrolled patients underwent a stress assessment in which they were tested for blood markers of sympathetic activity and inflammation and underwent a mental stress test.Both the BF and UC patients received their normal cardiac rehabilitation but the BF patients also received 8 weekly sessions of BFSM.After the 8 weekly sessions of BFSM were complete, the patients had a second stress assessment in x 22.TNF-a SA1 vs SA2………………………………………………….. 57 23.SF-36 Mental Aggregate Scores SA1 vs SA2……………………….59 24. GAD-7 Scores SA1 vs SA2………………………………………… 601
Author: Gregory J. Bolwell
Institution: Cleveland State University
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2339766614