Psychosomatic Study of 46 Young Men with Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract

Forty-six young men with coronary artery disease and 49 healthy control subjects were studied by means of psychiatric interviews, social inventory and a battery of psychological tests including the Otis S-A test, Rorschach test and Cattell''s 16 P. F. test Detailed information concerning medical history, anthropological measurements and blood chemistry was available. Comparison of the 2 groups in terms of various personality factors revealed no convincing differences. There was no evidence that personality factors were significant in the genesis of coronary artery atherosclerosis. The major factors appears to be more closely related to maleness, mesomorphic body build and some intrinsic fault in cholesterol metabolism, probably inherited. The body of the paper contains a number of tables, summarizing the data, and there is an appendix with details of the Social Inventory and the scores and raw data of the psychological tests.