Uncertainty and psychologic stress after coronary angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery

Objective: mine the trajectory of uncertainty and symptoms of psychologic stress during the first 3 months after coronary angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery and to study the impact of social support on uncertainty and psychologic stress in these patient populations. : ptive, correlative. g: community, at-home interviews. ts: atients with angioplasty (n=22) and bypass (n=25) at 1 and 3 months after treatment. Age range was 39 to 75 years (mean 58 years). e Measures: Uncertainty in Illness scores, General Health Questionnaire scores, and Perceived Social Support Scale scores. ention: ts underwent either percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting as treatment for coronary artery disease. s: ere analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results showed that at both time periods angioplasty patients were more uncertain than bypass patients (p<0.05), and that regardless of procedure, patients reported fewer symptoms of psychologic stress at 3 months than at 1 month (p<0.01). Patients with high social support had less uncertainty and psychologic stress than patients with low support (p<0.05). Analysis of the social support and treatment group interaction showed that angioplasty patients with low perceived social support had significantly more psychologic stress than angioplasty patients with high support (p<0.01). Analysis of the correlations between uncertainty and psychologic stress in the angioplasty and bypass grafting procedure groups after control for social support revealed that social support was a significant mediator of the relationship between uncertainty and stress only among patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. There was little evidence of a mediating role for social support in the coronary artery bypass grafting group. sions: results suggest that angioplasty patients may be in particular need of interventions aimed at reducing uncertainty, and that interventions that increase social support could be important in achieving this reduction.