AIIMS November 2011 – MCQ 72

Type D personality was recently found to increase risk for?
A. Coronary artery disease
B. Depression
C. Personality disorder
D. Schizophrenia

Correct answer : A. Coronary artery disease (References from Lancet and American Jounal of Cardiology given below)

Emotional distress has been related to mortality in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), but little is known about the role of personality in long-term prognosis. We postulated that type-D personality (the tendency to suppress emotional distress) was a predictor of long-term mortality in CHD, independently of established biomedical risk factors.

Ref: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8618481
Lancet. 1996 Feb 17;347(8999):417-21.
Personality as independent predictor of long-term mortality in patients with coronary heart disease.
Denollet J, Sys SU, Stroobant N, Rombouts H, Gillebert TC, Brutsaert DL.

Psychological stress and type D personality have been associated with adverse cardiac prognosis, but little is known about their relative effect on the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease (CHD). “Type D” refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions and to inhibit the expression of these emotions in social interactions.

Ref: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16563897
Am J Cardiol. 2006 Apr 1;97(7):970-3. Epub 2006 Feb 13.
Usefulness of type D personality in predicting five-year cardiac events above and beyond concurrent symptoms of stress in patients with coronary heart disease.
Denollet J, Pedersen SS, Vrints CJ, Conraads VM.