Anxiety and Depression in Cardiovascular Surgery

Although anxiety and depression are psychological risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD), psychological aspect in patients with cardiovascular surgery has been less considered. Cognitive and psychological deficit has been still concerning in spite of notable improvement of cardiovascular surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass perfusion. The purpose of this chapter review is to discuss recent data concerning the prevalence and trend of anxiety and depression of patients with cardiovascular surgery and to introduce the nonpharmacological intervention studies. The prevalence of anxiety and depression of patients after cardiovascular surgeries has varied from 10 to 60% and has been likely higher than that of general people. From the limited studies about patients over 6 months after surgery, we guessed the followings about the trends of anxiety and depression of patients with CABG without any other additional intervention programs before/after surgery: (1) patients improved scores of anxiety and depression 3–6 months after surgery, (2) anxiety decreased considerably for about 6 months after CABG and then leveled out for some time, (3) depression remained a bit higher 6 months and more after CABG. Patients’ longitudinal psychological conditions would have been influenced by not only invasive cardiovascular surgery but also life events. The nonpharmacology intervention would have improved patients’ psychological conditions. Further research is needed to clarify the long-term psychological outcome and to develop the effective intervention programs toward patients with cardiovascular surgery.