Logo image
Back
Social problem solving and noncardiac chest pain
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Social problem solving and noncardiac chest pain

Arthur M Nezu, Christine Maguth Nezu, Diwakar Jain, Melissa Shepanski Xanthopoulos, Travis A Cos, Jill Friedman and Minsun Lee
Psychosomatic medicine, v 69(9), pp 944-951
Dec 2007
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e31815a995a
PMID: 17991820
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

Humans Middle Aged Male Angina Pectoris - psychology Case-Control Studies Adult Anxiety - diagnosis Female Interpersonal Relations Myocardial Ischemia - diagnosis Anger Angina Pectoris - diagnosis Anxiety - psychology Problem Solving Depression - diagnosis Psychophysiologic Disorders - diagnosis Psychophysiologic Disorders - psychology Coronary Artery Disease - diagnosis Personality Inventory Myocardial Ischemia - psychology Chest Pain - psychology Depression - psychology Aged Coronary Artery Disease - psychology Pain Measurement Stress, Psychological - complications Cohort Studies
To investigate differences in social problem solving (SPS) between individuals with noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) and persons with chest pain who tested positive for underlying cardiac disease. The major design involved a matched case-control methodology and compared a group of patients with NCCP (n = 53) with a group of patients with cardiac disease-related chest pain (n = 53) with regard to a battery of psychological distress, stress, and pain measures as well as a multidimensional measure of SPS. Initial analyses found no differences between the groups regarding reported levels of chest pain intensity or frequency. However, patients with NCCP, as compared with their matched counterparts, reported significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and anger. In the analysis that addressed SPS differences between groups, general negative affectivity and prior history of cardiac disease served as covariates and revealed that individuals with NCCP were characterized by less effective problem solving on three of five dimensions assessed as compared with their matched counterparts. Moreover, the relationship between SPS and pain among patients with NCCP was found to be above and beyond that related to general negative affectivity. These findings both support and add to the literature regarding psychosocial correlates of NCCP and identify SPS as a potentially important factor in its pathogenesis.

Metrics

4 Record Views
19 citations in Web of Science
21 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychiatry
Psychology
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Logo image