Defensive Hostility: Relationship to Multiple Markers of Cardiac Ischemia in Patients with Coronary Disease

Three studies assessed whether the combined traits of hostility and defensiveness identify a group of hostile individuals with functionally severe coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD patients completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory (Ho) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC). Patients were classified into 4 groups: defensive hostile (DH: high Ho, high MC), low hostile (LH: low Ho, low MC), high hostile (HH: high Ho, low MC), and defensive (Def: low Ho, high MC). DH in comparison to HH, LH, and Def CAD patients demonstrate the greatest perfusion defects as measured by exercise thallium scintigraphy; DH patients exhibit the most frequent ischemic episodes during ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring; and in a laboratory study, DH patients exhibit the most severe mental stress-induced ischemia assessed by echocardiography. Thus, the combination of high hostility and high defensiveness are associated with more functionally severe CAD and may predispose CAD patients to a more adverse prognosis.