efficacy of illness perception focused intervention on quality of life, anxiety and depression in patients with myocardial infarction

background: :myocardial infarction (mi) is one of the major causes of death and disability worldwide which can reduces quality of life in patients. some disabilities are depression and anxiety which delay returning to work the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of illness perception focused intervention on quality of life, anxiety and depression in mi patients. material and methods : a randomized controlled trial study of 48 recently hospitalized mi patients was conducted (24 in intervention group and 24 in control group).intervention group were trained to understand the disease by a mental health counselor in three half an hour sessions for 3 consecutive days. data were collected from 3 questionnaires (hospital anxiety depression scale (hads), the world health organization quality of life questionnaire (short form) and illness perceptions questionnaire brief (ipq-b)at admission, 1.5 and 3 months post-discharge. statistical analysis used: data were analyzed with anova repeated measure. results : the mean duration of returning to work was 28.7 ± 8.1 days in intervention groups and 46± 7.6 days in control group which was statistically significant (p<0.001). moreover, anxiety, depression and illness perceptions score were significantly decreased in intervention groups which were 8.3 ± 3.3, 6.8 ± 3.5, 36.5 ± 5 in intervention groups and 15.8± 2.1(p<0.001), 17.1 ± 2.3 (p<0.001) and 41.9 ± 4 (p<0.001) in control group, respectively. mean of quality of life subscales score just physical health subscale showed significant reduction after 3 months in control group. conclusion : training mi patients to understand the disease in three half an hour sessions for 3 consecutive days can decrease the duration of returning to work, anxiety and depression and increase illness perceptions which can make better outcome. key-words : myocardial infarction, illness perceptions, anxiety, depression, quality of life