Original study
A questionnaire to assess premonitory symptoms of myocardial infarction

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Abstract

To test the hypothesis that feelings of vital exhaustion precede the onset of myocardial infarction, and to develop a short questionnaire to assess these feelings, a prospective study was done among 3877 males, aged 39–65 years. During a 4.2-year follow-up period, 59 fatal or non-fatal infarctions occurred. The mean score of future coronary causes as determined by a questionnaire assessing feelings of vital exhaustion was significantly higher than the mean score of a control group matched for age, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking. Given the validity of the model, it was possible to reduce markedly the size of the questionnaire.

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Cited by (328)

  • Depression, anxiety, and vital exhaustion are associated with pro-coagulant markers in depressed patients with coronary artery disease – A cross sectional and prospective secondary analysis of the SPIRR-CAD trial

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    Citation Excerpt :

    Vital exhaustion (VE) is considered an atypical, somatised form of depression. It represents a type of illness behaviour in CAD patients and has elements of both the somatic and psychological symptoms of the disease [29]. In a previous study VE was significantly associated with the progression of coronary atherosclerosis in women [30] and correlated with coronary risk factors in other clinical studies in men and women [31].

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This study was supported by grant no. 83.069 of the Dutch Heart Foundation.

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