Live Long and Be Positive

[Ahmed Anas Chowdhury]

Patients with coronary heart disease who have positive expectations about recovery, expressing beliefs such as "I can still live a long and healthy life," had greater long-term survival, researchers reported.

Among a cohort of almost 3,000 patients undergoing coronary angiography, those with the highest expectations for outcomes actually had the best outcomes, Dr. John C. Barefoot, and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

"Patients differ widely in terms of their psychological reactions to major illnesses such as coronary heart disease," Barefoot's group explained online in the Archives of Internal Medicine.