COGNITIVE, EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOSOMATIC COMPLAINTS AND THEIR RELATION TO EMOTIONAL STATUS AND PERSONALITY FOLLOWING CARDIAC-SURGERY

Objectives. The study investigated the prevalence of cognitive, emotio nal, and psychosomatic complaints after uncomplicated cardiac surgery. In addition, we evaluated the relation between non-cardiac complaints and emotional status and personality. Design & Methods. Five to 12 mo nths after elective bypass grafting 123 patients completed the Spielbe rger State Anxiety Inventory the Beck Depression Inventory, the NEO Fi ve-Factor Inventory, and a subjective complaints questionnaire. A corr elational design was employed to explore the relationships of these va riables. Results. Factor analyses of the complaints questionnaire reve aled four cognitive and four emotional/psychosomatic dimensions. Seven ty-three per cent of the patients reported cognitive complaints, parti cularly problems with sustained and divided attention. Seventy-eight p er cent reported emotional or psychosomatic complaints, especially inc reased anxiety and emotional instability. Post-operative complaints we re significantly correlated with anxiety and depression, and with neur oticism Stepwise regression analyses revealed that the occurrence of m ost subjective complaints was best predicted by self-reported depressi on and anxiety. Self-reported depression, anxiety and neuroticism cont ributed differently to different dimensions of subjective complaints. Conclusions. Subjective post-operative cognitive and emotional difficu lties are very common after uncomplicated cardiac surgery. Self-report ed anxiety and depression are significantly associated with the occurr ence of persistent subjective complaints. Although neuroticism also si gnificantly contributes to the perceived post-operative changes, most subjective complaints are best predicted by self-reported depression a nd anxiety.