This study focuses on the complicated and debilitating experience of cardiac induced post-traumatic stress disorder among cardiac patients and their spouses. Amongst the study main purposes are: to evaluate the frequency of PTSD among cardiac patients and spouses, to understand the unique experience and the way it manifests in cardiac patients and spouses, and to identify possible predictors to the development of PTSD, from a dyadic perspective.

This study is the first to investigate PTSD in cardiac patients, from a dyadic perspective, and therefore is of great importance to the field of health psychology in general and cardiac rehabilitation in particular (Vilchinsky, 2017). 

 

We began by undertaking a comprehensive systematic literature review of all of the studies that have ever been published on this topic, focusing on cardiac-disease-induced PTSD (CDI-PTSD) (Vilchinsky, Ginzburg, Fait, & Foa, 2017). Following the review, we conducted both a retrospective and a prospective study, in which we observed the prevalence of CDI-PTSD among cardiac caregivers (Fait, Vilchinsky, et al., 2016), and its unique nature (Fait, Vilchinsky, et al., 2018). We are continuing to collect data with the aim of tracing how partners' support may moderate patients' CDI-PTSD, as well as the association between CDI-PTSD and health-promoting behaviors.

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PUBLICATIONS:

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Vilchinsky, N., Ginsburg, K., *Fait, K. & Foa, E. B. (2017). Cardiac disease induced- PTSD: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 55, 92-106.

 

Fait, K., Vilchinsky, N., Dekel, R., Levi, N., Hod, H., & Matezky, S. (2017). Cardiac-Disease-Induced Post-Traumatic-Stress-Symptoms (CDI-PTSS) among patients' partners. Stress and Health, 33, 169-176.

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Fait, K., Vilchinsky, N., Dekel, R., Levi, N., Hod, H., & Matezky, S. (2018). Cardiac–disease-induced PTSD and Fear of illness progression: Capturing the unique nature of disease-related PTSD. General Hospital Psychiatry.

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