The DOI matches its Crossref record; 74 of the 76 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
A Positive Psychology Intervention for Patients with an Acute Coronary Syndrome: Treatment Development and Proof-of-Concept Trial
Open accessAbstract
Positive psychological constructs are associated with superior outcomes in cardiac patients, but there has been minimal study of positive psychology (PP) interventions in this population. Our objective was to describe the intervention development and pilot testing of an 8-week phone-based PP intervention for patients following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Initial intervention development and single-arm proof-of-concept trial, plus comparison of the PP intervention to a subsequently-recruited treatment as usual (TAU) cohort. PP development utilized existing literature, expert input, and qualitative interview data in ACS patients. In the proof-of-concept trial, the primary outcomes were feasibility and acceptability, measured by rates of exercise completion and participant ratings of exercise ease/utility. Secondary outcomes were pre-post changes in psychological outcomes and TAU comparisons, measured using effect sizes (Cohen's d). The PP intervention and treatment manual were successfully created. In the proof-of-concept trial, 17/23 PP participants (74 %) completed at least 5 of 8 exercises. Participants rated the ease (M = 7.4/10; SD = 2.1) and utility (M = 8.1/10, SD = 1.6) of PP exercises highly. There were moderate pre-post improvements (d s = .46-.69) in positive affect, anxiety, and depression, but minimal effects on dispositional optimism (d = .08). Compared to TAU participants (n = 22), PP participants demonstrated greater improvements in positive affect, anxiety, and depression (d s = . 47-.71), but not optimism. A PP intervention was feasible, well-accepted, and associated with improvements in most psychological measures among cardiac patients. These results provide support for a larger trial focusing on behavioral outcomes.
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“These interventions are well accepted by patients, require little staff training, and can be delivered remotely. 13-15”
From Feasibility and acceptability of a positive psychological intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes (2016) · cites this paper as [15]
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“These interventions are well accepted by patients, require little staff training, and can be delivered remotely. 13-15”
From Feasibility and acceptability of a positive psychological intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes (2016) · cites this paper as [15]
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“Positive psychology-based programs have also led to improvements in health behaviors in studies of patients with hypertension or heart disease, 15-17”
From Feasibility and acceptability of a positive psychological intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes (2016) · cites this paper as [15]
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“These interventions are well accepted by patients, require little staff training, and can be delivered remotely. 13-15”
From Feasibility and acceptability of a positive psychological intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes (2016) · cites this paper as [15]
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Cites
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 · Cited by 32,433
The validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
Bjelland, I., Dahl, A. A., Haug, T. T., & Neckelmann, D. (2002) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(01)00296-3 · Cited by 9,779 · cited 2×
“…positive affect (PANAS) (Watson et al. 1988), (2) optimism (LOT-R) (Scheier et al. 1994), and (3) anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS]) (Bjelland et al. 2002), assessed as a total scale (HADS-T) and anxiety or depression subscales (HADS-A and HADS-D, respectively).”
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.67.6.1063 · Cited by 7,456
Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.60.5.410 · Cited by 5,947
Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2015 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association
Mozaffarian, D., Benjamin, E. J., Go, A. S., Arnett, D. K., Blaha, M. J., Cushman, M., de Ferranti, S., Després, J.-P., Fullerton, H. J., Howard, V. J., et al. (2015) · Circulation · doi:10.1161/cir.0000000000000152 · Cited by 5,797
The American Journal of Managed Care
(2020) · The American Journal of Managed Care · doi:10.37765/ajmc · Cited by 3,254
Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111 · Cited by 3,203
Sin, N. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.20593 · Cited by 2,955 · cited 6×
“A meta-analysis of 39 trials in over 6000 participants found that PP programs consistently led to increased happiness, less depression, and improvements in overall wellbeing (Bolier et al. 2013), and such benefits can last months post-intervention (Sin and Lyubomirsky 2009; Seligman et al. 2005).”
InfluentialDoes positive affect influence health?
Pressman, S. D., & Cohen, S. (2005) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.925 · Cited by 2,087
Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies
Bolier, L., Haverman, M., Westerhof, G. J., Riper, H., Smit, F., & Bohlmeijer, E. (2013) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-119 · Cited by 1,996 · cited 5×
“A meta-analysis of 39 trials in over 6000 participants found that PP programs consistently led to increased happiness, less depression, and improvements in overall wellbeing (Bolier et al. 2013), and such benefits can last months post-intervention (Sin and Lyubomirsky 2009; Seligman et al. 2005).”
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Zeynali, N., Akbari, M., & Ghezelbash, S. (2026) · Journal of Education and Health Promotion · doi:10.4103/jehp.jehp_1661_24
Madva, E. N., Huffman, J. C., Murray, H. B., McGranaghan, E., Bidgood, M., Gan, J. Y., Wasserman, B., Feig, E. H., Healy, B. C., Staller, K. D., et al. (2026) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/98352
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Huffman, J. C., Millstein, R. A., Mastromauro, C. A., Moore, S. V., Celano, C. M., Bedoya, C. A., Suarez, L., Boehm, J. K., & Januzzi, J. L.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Chapman University (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- Huffman, Jeff C.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Happiness Studies
- Published
- 2015-10-19
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1985-2006
- ISSN
- 1389-4978 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-7780
- PMC
- PMC5222616
- OpenAlex
- W1759267738
- Cited by
- 102
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 6.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Happiness Studies (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R01HL113272)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Keywords
- positive psychology interventions, acute coronary syndrome, cardiac patients, telephone-delivered intervention, intervention development, feasibility and acceptability, positive affect, anxiety, depression, dispositional optimism
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