UPPSALA, Sweden, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Cognitive behavioral therapy may help those with heart disease reduce their risk of heart attack, researchers in Sweden found.
Dr. Mats Gulliksson of Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden and colleagues say the study involved 362 men and women age 75 and younger discharged from the hospital after a coronary heart disease event such as a heart attack within the past 12 months.
The patients were randomized to receive traditional care or traditional care plus 20 two-hour sessions during a year of cognitive behavioral therapy that focused on stress management.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found after seven years, of those who had traditional therapies, 25 died, 77 had non-fatal cardiovascular events and 51 had non-fatal heart attacks.
However, those who had the therapy program emphasizing stress management had a 41 percent lower rate of both fatal and non-fatal heart events and 45 percent fewer recurrent heart attacks.
