The investigation into dynamics of depression level and the quality of life in the patients after myocardial infarction under the influence of the program of physical rehabilitation

Abstract

The evaluation of the psychological condition of the patients who survived myocardial infarction and its correction taking into consideration the peculiar features of the individual reaction to the disease are the indispensable components of physical rehabilitation. The present article was designed to report the results of the study on the influence of the authors' physical rehabilitation program on the prevalence of depression and the life quality characteristics of the patients treated after myocardial infarction during the follow-up period. The patients of the main group (n=30) were enrolled in the original physical rehabilitation program. Those comprising the group of comparison (n=30) were given a course of rehabilitation in accordance with the scheme that had been recommended by the leading scientists and generally accepted in the Ukraine for the patients recovering after myocardial infarction under conditions of the out-patient clinics, spa and health resort facilities or convalescent centers. The study has demonstrated that the patients of both groups exhibited positive dynamics of their clinical condition (e.g. the decrease in the number of depressed subjects); however, this tendency was more pronounced in the main group where the number of the patients experiencing depression decreased by 61% at the end of the observation period (р<0,05). The analysis of the causes of anxiety associated with this pathology in the individual patients has demonstrated that the main factors responsible for the deterioration of the quality of life were the necessity of treatment, the limitations on the everyday physical activity, and the feeling of emotional tension. Moreover, the positive dynamics of the characteristics being evaluated was documented in the patients of the main group which gives reason to conclude that the program of physical rehabilitation proposed by the authors for the treatment of the patients after myocardial infarction is highly efficient during the follow-up period. Suffice it to say that 23 (76,7%) patients of the main group did not consider their lives as of poor quality by the end of the study period (р<0,01). There were only 18 such patients in the control group (р<0,05). The results of the present study provide a basis for recommending the proposed authors' program of physical rehabilitation for the patients treated after myocardial infarction with the emphasis on the necessity to do special dynamic exercises for the cervical and thoraco-cervical spine segments to be supplemented by the relevant educational program.