Symptoms of fatigue and depression in ischemic heart disease are driven by personality characteristics rather than disease stage: A comparison of CAD and CHF patients

BACKGROUND: Symptoms of fatigue and depression are prevalent across stages of ischemic heart disease (IHD). We examined (i) the effect of both the IHD stage and type-D personality on fatigue and depressive symptoms at 12-month follow-up, and (ii) whether the effect of type-D personality on these symptoms is moderated by IHD stage. METHODS: Two different samples of patients were included to represent IHD stage: 401 percutaneous coronary intervention patients (early-stage IHD) and 105 ischemic chronic heart failure patients (end-stage IHD) completed the DS14 Type-D Scale at baseline. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the impact of IHD stage and type-D personality on fatigue and depression at follow-up. RESULTS: Disease stage was neither associated with symptoms of fatigue (P=0.99) nor depression (P=0.29) at 12 months. In contrast, type-D personality was shown to predict both symptoms of fatigue [odds ratio (OR)=2.96; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.92-4.58, P<0.001] and depression (OR=4.91; 95% CI: 3.16-7.65, P<0.001) at follow-up; the effect of type-D personality on these symptoms was not moderated by disease stage. In multivariable analysis, type-D remained a significant predictor of symptoms of fatigue (OR=3.14; 95% CI: 1.98-4.99, P<0.001) and depression (OR=5.90; 95% CI: 3.60-9.67, P<0.001), also after controlling for symptom levels at baseline. CONCLUSION: Type-D personality but not disease stage predicted symptoms of fatigue and depression at 12-month follow-up.

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