Ellen A. Dornelas EditorStress Proof the HeartBehavioral Interventions for Cardiac Patients That cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in America is widely known. Gaining in understanding is the role of the type D personality-characterized by chronic anxiety, depression, and negative emotions-as a risk factor in recurring cardiac problems and early death. Yet while behavior-based treatment references are available to clinicians in other specialties, few exist for cardiologists. Stress Proof the Heart presents a general picture of behavioral cardiology while focusing in depth on critical specifics. Leading experts in the field explore the psychological aspects of living with arrhythmia, intracardiac device, heart failure, and heart transplant, relating them to psychological characteristics such as pessimism and the feeling of overcommitment. Mainstream treatments, such as stress management and smoking cessation, and emerging interventions, such as computer-based therapies and personality-based techniques, are discussed at length for a well-rounded look at what works and what is promising. Among the topics covered: - Psychological challenges of living with coronary artery disease.- Psychological treatment of patients with heart failure.- Interventions in the context of the type D personality.- Managing sleep problems in cardiac patients.- Exercise as medicine for cardiac patients.- Integrative treatment models for behavioral cardiology. Filling a growing need in the literature, Stress Proof the Heart is a unique source of practical ideas and clinical examples for health and clinical psychologists, nurses, and allied professionals providing behavioral care to cardiac patients.

Ellen Dornelas, Ph.D. is associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine at Farmington and director of behavioral health programs at the Henry Low Heart Center, Hartford Hospital. She received her Ph.D. from Yeshiva University in 1993. For the past 15 years, she has worked as a hospital-based psychologist, treating cardiac patients in medical inpatient, outpatient psychotherapy, and cardiac rehabilitation settings. She was trained as a clinical health psychologist and has a strong background in research in adapting psychotherapeutic approaches to meet the needs of medical patients. She edited a special issue of In Session: The Journal of Clinical Psychology called Integrating Health Psychology into Clinical Practice. In addition, for several years she was the media spokesperson for Connecticut's anti-tobacco coalition.

Part I. Psychological Challenges of Heart Disease.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Psychological Challenges of Coping with Coronary Artery Disease.- 3. Sudden cardiac arrest: a biopsychosocial approach to patient management of ventricular fibrillation and implantable cardioverter defibrillators.- 4. Atrial Fibrillation: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Patient Management.- 5. Psychological Management of the Patient with Heart Failure.- 6. Psychiatric symptoms, personality profile and Takotsubo syndrome: Clinical considerations.- 7. Psychological Aspects of Cardiac Transplantation.- Part II.  Psychological Interventions for Cardiac Patients.- 8. Anxiety and depression:  Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease.- 9. Interventions in the Context of the Distressed (Type D) Personality.- 10. Stress Management with Cardiac Patients.- 11. The Effects of Meditation and Yoga on Cardiovascular Disease.- 12. Job Stress and Overcommittment in Cardiac Patients.- 13. Managing Sleep Problems Among Cardiac Patients.- 14. Exercise as Medicine for Cardiac Patients.- 15. Approaches to Smoking Cessation in a Cardiovascular Population.- Advances in Cardiac Psychology: Computerized Therapies.- Behavioral Cardiology: Toward the Development of Integrated Treatment Models.