Basic Personality Traits in Patients with Myocardial Infarction
Abstract
On the topic of cardiovascular diseases, textbooks usually list a psychogenic factor as one of the last risk factors, and it is defined quite vaguely and differently as stress, trauma or personality traits. The five-factor model of personality that we used in our research belongs to the field of psychology that deals with the basic structure—basic personality traits. Basic personality traits are understood as non-cognitive, time-stable and, in relation to the characteristics of the sample, invariant dispositional constructs that can explain most of the variance of individual differences. The main goal of the study is to relate heart rate variability (HRV) parameters with comprehensively described personality functioning thru NEO-PI-R inventory. Sample consists of 95 persons (65 males and 32 females) with non-fatal cardiac arrest (age between 35 and 60). HRV and personality measurements were done during their hospital treatment. Personality dimensions were measured by NEO-PI-R inventory and HRV variables were measured by five tests for cardio-vascular reflexes by Ewing and Clark and by Holter monitoring. Our results indicate that there are statistically significant correlations between Openness as psychological variable on one side, and different parameters of functioning of autonomic nervous system, measured indirectly thru HRV variables, on the other side. In our study product-moment correlation analysis was employed between personality and HRV variables and canonical analysis of covariance between linear composites extracted in two sets of variables (HRV and personality) was employed. Three statistically significant correlations were obtained. The first correlation reveals that absence of Openness is related to parameters indicating good functioning of sympathetic function. The second correlation reflects the relationship between elevated Neuroticism with good functioning of vagal segment of autonomic nervous system which is followed by slight unitability of sympathetic function registered by EKG analysis. Third correlation indicated that Extrovert persons has tendency of good sympathetic functioning which is followed by slight vagal disfunction measured by short term analysis. There is not only one, but several mechanisms through which the connection between the functioning of the basic structure of personality and ANS is realized. This means that the influence of the basic structure on the ANS is not unambiguous, and that, as we have said, it is realized through different mechanisms. Overcoming opposite theoretical orientations through an integral and multidisciplinary approach to coronary heart disease is becoming topical. It is emphasized that research should include equally variables of biological, psychological, and sociological order. Also, in accordance with this type of research, it insists on a modern methodology that will include multivariate designs, adequate multidimensional techniques, controlled samples and variables and precise statistical methods. It is believed that in this way, some of the controversial issues in this area will be resolved, such as: the share and mechanisms of action of psychological factors in the chain in which emotions and physical illness intertwine and continue on each other. We hope that this paper is one in this direction.
References
Adamović, V. (1982). Psihologija obolelog od infarkta miokarda. Beograd: Prosveta.
Arnold, S. V., Smolderen, K. G., Buchanan, D. M., Li, Y., Spertus, J. A. (2012). Perceived stress in myocardial infarction: long-term mortality and health status outcomes. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 60 (18), 1756–1763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2012.06.044
Bigger Jr, J. T., Fleiss, J. L., Steinman, R. C., Rolnitzky, L. M., Schneider, W. J., Stein, P. K. (1995). RR variability in healthy, middle-aged persons compared with patients with chronic coronary heart disease or recent acute myocardial infarction. Circulation, 91 (7), 1936–1943. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.CIR.91.7.1936
Carney, R. M., Blumenthal, J. A., Stein, P. K., Watkins, L., Catellier, D., Berkman, L. F., Czajkowski, S. M., O’Connor, C., Stone, P. H., Freedland, K. E. (2001). Depression, heart ratevariability, and acute myocardial infarction. Circulation, 104 (17), (2024–2028).
Collet, C., Vernet-Maury, E., Delhomme, G., Dittmar, A., (1997). Autonomic nervous sys-tem response patterns specificity to basic emotions, France. Laboratoire de Physiologie Neurosensorielle, 62 (1–2), 45–57.
Costa Jr, P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (2008). The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Sage Publications, Inc.
Everson-Rose, S. A., Roetker, N. S., Lutsey, P. L., Kershaw, K. N., Longstreth Jr, W. T., Sac-co, R. L., Alonso, A. (2014). Chronic stress, depressive symptoms, anger, hostility, and risk of stroke and transient ischemic attack in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Stroke, 45 (8), 2318–2323. https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.004815
Ewing, D. J., Martin, C. N., Young, R. J., Clarke, B. F. (1985). The value of cardiovascular autonomic function tests: 10 years' experience in diabetes, American diabetes association, New York. Diabetes Care, 8, 491–498.
Gang, Y. & Malik M., (2003). Heart Rate Variability Analysis in General Medicine. Indian pacing and electrophysiology journal, 3 (1), 34–40.
Hegarty, G., Storey, L., Dempster, M., Rogers, D. (2020). Correlates of Post-Traumatic Growth Following a Myocardial Infarction: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Psy-chology in Medical Settings, 1–11 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-020-09727-3
Thimas Bigger, Jr., Fleiss, J., Steinman, R., Rolnitzky, L., Schneider, W., Stein, P. (1995). RR variability in healthy, middle-age persons compared with patients with chronic coronary heart disease or recent acute myocardial infarction. Circulation, 91, 1936–1943.
Boehm, J., Chen, Y., Williams, D., Ryff, C., Kubzansky, L. (2016). Subjective Well-Being and Cardiometabolic Health: An 8–11 Year Study of Midlife Adults. Journal of Psychoso-matic Research, 85, 1–8.
Liu, H. Y., Yang, Z., Meng, F. G., Guan, Y. G., Ma, Y. S., Liang, S. L., Li, L. M. (2018). Pre-operative heart rate variability as predictors of vagus nerve stimulation outcome in pa-tients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Scientific reports, 8 (1), 1–11.
Malik, M. & Camm, A. J. (1993). Components of heart rate variability: what they really mean and what we really measure. Cardiology Am J., 72 (11), 821–822.
Malik, M. & Camm, A. J. (1994). Heart rate variability and clinical cardiology. British heart journal, 71 (1), 3. PMID: 8297689
Milovanović, B. (1996). Šećerna bolest i iznenadna srčana smrt. Beograd: Big štampa.
Nero, D., Agewall, S., Daniel, M., Caidahl, K., Collste, O., Ekenbäck, C., Tornvall, P. (2019). Personality traits in patients with myocardial infarction with nonobstructive coronary arteries. The American journal of medicine, 132 (3), 374–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2018.11.010
Roberts, B. W., Jackson, J. J., Fayard, J. V., Edmonds, G., Meints, J. (2009). Conscientious-ness. In: M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences in social behavior (369–381). The Guilford Press.
Stewart, J. C., Hawkins, M. A., Khambaty, T., Perkins, A. J., Callahan, C. M. (2016). De-pression and anxiety screens as predictors of 8-year incidence of myocardial infarction and stroke in primary care patients. Psychosomatic medicine, 78 (5), 593. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000315
Strigo, I. A. & Craig, A. D. (2016). Interoception, homeostatic emotions and sympathova-gal balance. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371 (1708), 20160010. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0010
Task Force of the European society of cardiology and the north american society of pac-ing and electrophysiology (1996). Heart rate variability; standards of measurement, phys-iological interpretation and clinical use. European heart journal, 17, 354–381.
Đurić-Jočić, D., Džamonja-Ignjatović, T., Knežević, G. (2004a). Petofaktorski model ličnosti. Beograd: Centar za primenjenu psihologiju.
Đurić-Jočić, D., Džamonja-Ignjatović, T., Knežević, G., (2004b). NEO PI-R primena i in-terpretacija. Beograd: Centar za primenjenu psihologiju.
Čukić, I. & Bates, T. C. (2015). The association between neuroticism and heart rate varia-bility is not fully explained by cardiovascular disease and depression. PloS one, 10 (5), e0125882. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.01258 82
The details about the publication policy, including copyright and licensing, are available at: