Acute Coronary Syndrome, Congestive Heart Failure
Conditions
Keywords
positive psychology, cardiovascular disease
Brief summary
This study is investigating whether a series of psychological exercises, called positive psychology, provides benefit to patients who have been hospitalized for heart disease (an 'acute coronary syndrome' or heart failure). In this study, subjects are randomly assigned to complete 8 positive psychology exercises over 8 weeks, or to complete different exercises in control groups. We hypothesize that patients who are assigned to the positive psychology tasks will be able to complete the exercises at a high rate, will feel that the exercises were easy to perform, and will have greater improvements of optimism, anxiety, mood, and health-related quality of life than subjects in the control conditions.
Interventions
OTHERPositive Psychology
Weekly exercises focused on optimism, gratitude, altruism, and other positive affective states
BEHAVIORALRelaxation Response
Daily practice of relaxation response, reviewed on a weekly basis
BEHAVIORALRecollection
Subjects record daily events on a weekly basis for 8 weeks
Sponsors
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Massachusetts General Hospital
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Hospitalization at Massachusetts General Hospital for an acute coronary syndrome or congestive heart failure * Able to read/write in English * Have working home or cellular phone
Exclusion criteria
* Cognitive disorder * Medical condition likely to lead to death within 6 months * Illness leading to inabilty to consent or complete study exercises * Current or prior participation in positive psychology interventions
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feasiblity | 8 weeks | Percentage of exercises completed in the 8 week period |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Optimism | 8 weeks | Self-report (on Likert scale) of optimism |
| Happiness | 8 week | Score on Subjective Happiness Scale Score on Happiness subscale of CES-D |
| Depression | 8 weeks | Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) |
| Anxiety | 8 weeks | Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale--Anxiety subscale |
| Mental-health related quality of life | 8 weeks | SF-12 Mental Component Score |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed