Depression in patients after coronary artery bypass grafting

M.A. (Clinical Psychology)This research was undertaken in an attempt to validate the hypotheses that depression reported after coronary artery bypass grafting could be attributed to cognitive distortion, learned helplessness and loss of appropriate social reinforcement. Thirty subjects from the J.G. Strijdom Hospital in Johannesburg were randomly selected from a population of 80 patients who had undergone their first coronary artery bypass graft and assessed for depression and the related dimensions of the hypotheses. Mood was also assessed. On the basis of Beck Depression Inventory scores, 17 subjects were divided into experimental and control groups of depressed and non- depressed patients. The differences between the two groups were then compared. Overall, no support was found for the learned helplessness, cognitive distortion or loss of social reinforcement hypotheses, although fatigue, sadness and egotism were found to be the most significant differences between depressed and non-depressed post-operative patients. Contrary to indications in the literature, only 40 percent of patients in this study were found to be clinically depressed. The findings of this research may be seen to offer support for the "coronary-prone Behaviour" hypothesis, suggesting post-operative psychotherapeutic programmes for coronary artery bypass graft patients should address themselves to changing the behavioural styles of these patients both pre- and post-operatively