Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 45, Issue 3 187-193, Copyright © 1983 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Pressured pattern or type A behavior in patients with peripheral arteriovascular disease: controlled retrospective exploratory study

C Cottier, R Adler, H Vorkauf, R Gerber, T Hefer and C Hurny

The question as to whether a specific behavior or type A pattern is limited to patients with coronary artery disease, or is found in atherosclerotic disease, in general, is explored. The interrelationship between a pattern of "pressured" behavior, assessed by open ended interviews, type A behavior, determined by the Bortner test, and peripheral atherosclerotic disease was investigated in a controlled retrospective study which compared three groups of 13 patients each: intermittent claudication (IC), intermittent claudication combined with coronary artery disease (CADIC) and a control group of patients without vascular disease (WVD). A pressured behavior pattern, assessed by interview, was found to be most prominent in the CADIC group, and least in the control group. The subjects with arteriovascular disease tended to exert more control over people compared to the WVD patients (Fisher's exact probability test, p = 0.05). The tendency to type A behavior, measured by means of the Bortner scale, also differentiated the three groups with CADIC scoring highest and WVD scoring lowest (analysis of variance, F = 3.944, p less than 0.05). IC patients present personality features of proneness to coronary disease. The pattern of "pressured" and type A behavior seem to correlate with the number of vascular areas involved in atherosclerotic disease.