FAMILY STRESS MANAGEMENT FOLLOWING ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION - AN EDUCATIONAL AND SKILLS TRAINING INTERVENTION PROGRAM

Although the experience of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a fami ly affair, relatively little has been available to guide stress and di stress reduction efforts focusing on all members of the family compare d to the somewhat larger literature addressing stress management inter ventions with cardiac patients. This article provides a conceptual bac kground for a specific behavioral therapy approach to family stress ma nagement in dealing with the sequelae of AMI for all family members wi th the goal of reducing morbidity for all family members as they cope with ongoing survivorship issues. The family intervention program is d escribed and its pilot implementation discussed. Evaluation of the pil ot suggests that an individually tailored focus for that subset of fam ilies at higher risk for elevated, persistent distress may be the most cost-effective use of such a family intervention program. (C) 1998 El sevier Science Ireland Ltd.