Stress Management Shows Major Benefits for Heart Patients

Stress management not only reduces the long-term chance of heart patients having another cardiac event but also significantly reduces their health care costs, according to a study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA). Moreover, both benefits exceeded those of exercise and usual heart care. The findings were published in the January 15, 2002, issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The study involved 94 male patients with coronary artery disease who were assigned to one of three groups. The first group received 1.5 hours per week of stress management training for 16 weeks, the second group exercised three times per week during a four-month period, and the third group received the usual, traditional care given such patients. The researchers conducted follow-up on the patients annually for five years. Stress management programs help patients identify the physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive symptoms of stress. Patients are then taught how to react realistically and positively to these stresses.

Patients in both the exercise and usual care groups averaged 1.3 cardiac events (bypass surgery, angioplasty, heart attack, death) by the fifth year. In contrast, those in the stress management group averaged only 0.8 such events during that time. The researchers found that average costs rose only to US$9,251 per patient during the fifth year for those in the stress management group, compared to $15,688 per patient for those who exercised and $14,997 per patient for those who received usual care. Costs per patient in the first year averaged $1,228 for the stress management patients, $2,352 for those who exercised, and $4,523 for patients who received traditional care. Although not known why, the benefits of exercise seemed to diminish over time.

"One of the benefits of a stress management program is that once you've learned how to recognize and handle the stresses of everyday life, it tends to stay with you,” noted James Blumenthal, a Duke psychologist who led the study. "This is unlike exercise, which must be maintained for the benefits to be realized.”




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