Anger and hostility are significantly associated with both a higher risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) in healthy individuals and poorer outcomes in patients with existing heart disease, according to the first quantitative review and meta-analysis of related studies, which appears in the March 17, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Management of anger and hostility may be an important adjuvant strategy in preventing CHD in the general public and treating CHD patients, according to authors.
"Anger and hostility were found to predict a 19 percent and 24 percent increase in CHD events among initially healthy people and those with pre-existing CHD, respectively," says Yoichi Chida, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College, London, UK. "The harmful association of anger and hostility with CHD events in healthy people was greater in men than women. This suggests that the accumulation of stress responses in daily life might have a greater impact on future CHD in men."
Authors extensively reviewed the literature on the longitudinal associations of anger and hostility with CHD events, and identified 25 studies of initially healthy populations and 18 studies of patients with CHD. While the damaging effects of these emotions have been widely asserted, previous reviews have been inconclusive.