PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OBSERVED ON FOLLOW-UP AFTER CORONARY BYPASS SURGERY

Abstract

Of 51 coronary bypass patients whose inhospital postoperative adjustment was reported earlier, 46 were studied about 18 mo. postoperatively. In addition, 32 of 46 cardiac valvular surgery patients were seen as a comparison group. The incidence of postoperative psychiatric symptoms observed in the hospital, 8 of 51 (16%), and on follow-up, 7 of 46 (15%), was very similar; the patients who had these psychiatric symptoms comprised 2 almost entirely different groups. There were no indications that patients who developed psychiatric symptoms in the immediate postoperative period were likely to have a higher incidence of symptoms in the follow-up period than patients asymptomatic postoperatively. There was a significant relationship between preoperative psychiatric illness and symptoms in the follow-up period.