Cited by 180Cardiac Health and Mental HealthPsychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsCardiovascular Health and Risk Factors

Significance of psychosocial factors in cardiology: update 2018: Position paper of the German Cardiac Society

Open access
Albus, Christian, Waller, Christiane, Fritzsche, Kurt, Gunold, Hilka, Haass, Markus, Hamann, Bettina, Kindermann, Ingrid, Köllner, Volker +10 more·2019·Clinical Research in Cardiology

Abstract

Background Psychosocial factors in cardiovascular diseases are increasingly acknowledged by patients, health care providers and payer organizations. Due to the rapidly increasing body of evidence, the German Cardiac Society has commissioned an update of its 2013 position paper on this topic. The German version was published in 2018 and the current manuscript is an extended translation of the original version.Methods This position paper provides a synopsis of the state of knowledge regarding psychosocial factors in the most relevant cardiovascular diseases and gives recommendations with respect to their consideration in clinical practice.Results Psychosocial factors such as low socioeconomic status, acute and chronic stress, depression, anxiety and low social support are associated with an unfavorable prognosis. Psychosocial problems and mental comorbidities should be assessed routinely to initiate targeted diagnostics and treatment. For all patients, treatment should consider age and gender differences as well as individual patient preferences. Multimodal treatment concepts should comprise education, physical exercise, motivational counseling and relaxation training or stress management. In cases of mental comorbidities, brief psychosocial interventions by primary care providers or cardiologists, regular psychotherapy and/or medications should be offered. While these interventions have positive effects on psychological symptoms, robust evidence for possible effects on cardiac outcomes is still lacking.Conclusions For coronary heart disease, chronic heart failure, arterial hypertension, and some arrhythmias, there is robust evidence supporting the relevance of psychosocial factors, pointing to a need for considering them in cardiological care. However, there are still shortcomings in implementing psychosocial treatment, and prognostic effects of psychotherapy and psychotropic drugs remain uncertain. There is a need for enhanced provider education and more treatment trials.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s00392-019-01488-w

Cites

189 of 189 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [48]48. Fritzsche K, Geigges W, Richter D et al (2015) Psychosomatische Grundversorgung. 2. Erweiterte Auflage. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 23-29
  2. [109]109. Matthes J, Albus C (2014) Improving adherence with medi- cation-a selective literature review based on the example of hypertension treatment. Dtsch Arztebl Int 111:41-47 116.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Albus, C., Waller, C., Fritzsche, K., Gunold, H., Haass, M., Hamann, B., Kindermann, I., Köllner, V., Leithäuser, B., Marx, N., Meesmann, M., Michal, M., Ronel, J., Scherer, M., Schrader, V., Schwaab, B., Weber, C. S., & Herrmann-Lingen, C.
Affiliations
  • University Hospital Cologne (DE)
  • Nuremberg Hospital (DE)
  • University Medical Center Freiburg (DE)
  • University Hospital Leipzig (DE)
  • Kerckhoff Klinik (DE)
  • Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes (DE)
  • Universitätsklinikum Aachen (DE)
  • Stiftung Juliusspital (DE)
  • University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
  • Klinik Barmelweid (CH)
  • University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE)
Corresponding author
Albus, Christian
Venue
Clinical Research in Cardiology
Published
2019-05-10
Volume
108
Issue
11
Pages
1175-1196
ISSN
  • 1861-0684 (ISSN-L)
  • 1861-0692
OpenAlex
W2944055338
Cited by
178
References
188
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3
FWCI
12.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Clinical Research in Cardiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • GoeScholar The Publication Server of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Universität zu Köln
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiovascular Health and Risk Factors
Keywords
psychosocial factors, cardiovascular disease, socioeconomic status, chronic stress, depression, anxiety, social support, coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, psychosocial interventions, psychotherapy, psychotropic drugs, motivational counseling, stress management, relaxation training, patient education, physical activity, prognosis, clinical guidelines
MeSH terms
Attitude of Health Personnel, Mental Disorders, Cardiology, Cardiovascular Diseases, Germany, Humans, Societies, Medical, Socioeconomic Factors

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review