[Coping with anger by cardiovascular patients].

Patients with essential hypertension and coronary heart disease were compared to a healthy and clinical control group an the recently developed Müller-Anger-Coping Questionnaire (MAQ). The inventory measures the factors "Spontaneous Behavior" (f1), "Controlled Affect" (f2), "Guilt" (f3) and "Social Inhibition" (f4) as a trait. The patients, suffering from essential hypertension, in comparison to the healthy control group, showed significant differences on factors 2 to 4, indicating, that they are expressing anger to a lesser degree and that they are more likely to exhibit an anger-in/guilt coping style. The same was true for patients suffering from coronary heart disease with respect to factors 2 and 4. With respect to "Guilt" coronary heart disease patients showed a clear trend for more feelings of guilt after anger expression, as compared to the healthy control group. None of the groups showed significant differences on expressing anger-in an aggressive manner (factor 1). These results provide further evidence, that patients with cardiovascular disorders have a clear tendency to show anger to a lesser degree in an socially assertive manner and to suppress anger. If anger is expressed by these patients, they tend to feel guilty. Implications of the findings are discussed.