Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: April 29, 2022
April 29, 2022"Broadening Cardiac Psychology: The Case of Vascular Disease and Integrated Cardiovascular Behavioral Health Care"
Kim Smolderen, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
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- 00:00Q All for being here this morning
- 00:02and to for the opportunity to
- 00:05present in today's grant rounds.
- 00:07It's my great honor.
- 00:08The topic that I would like to
- 00:10highlight today is the emergence of
- 00:12the field of cardiac psychology and
- 00:14to make a case how we should broaden
- 00:17it to include vascular populations and
- 00:20how both cardiac as well as vascular
- 00:23populations all would benefit from
- 00:25integrated cardiovascular, behavioral
- 00:27healthcare in the specialty setting.
- 00:31These are my disclosures.
- 00:36I would like to dedicate today's
- 00:38lecture to my great mentor,
- 00:40alluded to in the introduction,
- 00:43who has been a great support
- 00:44throughout my career.
- 00:45Yohan done on it also
- 00:47Belgian native like myself.
- 00:49Whose theory focused on a
- 00:52combination of personality traits
- 00:53that proved to be particularly
- 00:56toxic for cardiovascular outcomes.
- 00:58Without his encouragement and support,
- 01:00I would not stand here today and so
- 01:03his work and passion for the field
- 01:06has definitely been passed on to
- 01:08many of us who have spread out and
- 01:10trained under him and all of us have
- 01:13spread out over the world to continue
- 01:15the the work that is ahead of us.
- 01:20So for today's presentation,
- 01:22I would like to take you back to
- 01:25some of the origins of health,
- 01:28psychology and some of the defining
- 01:31moments as a response to the
- 01:33post war chronic disease burden.
- 01:35And following that I would like to
- 01:37zoom in on further subspecialization
- 01:39that occurred and as an example would
- 01:42like to highlight the feel of cardiac
- 01:45psychology and the research and the
- 01:47interventions that led up to it.
- 01:49Next I would like to broaden the
- 01:51focus to include populations with
- 01:53vascular disease and those as those
- 01:56have been the primary focus of
- 01:58our work and I will conclude with
- 02:00making the case for integrated
- 02:02behavioral health care for both
- 02:04cardiac and vascular populations.
- 02:09So before we dive back in history,
- 02:12I want to highlight what the
- 02:15American Psychological Association
- 02:16today defines as health psychology.
- 02:19They defined as discipline as a discipline
- 02:23that examines how biological, social,
- 02:26and psychosocial factors influence
- 02:28health but also illness and health.
- 02:31Psychologists use their psychological
- 02:33signs to promote health to prevent
- 02:36illness and improve healthcare systems.
- 02:38So I want you to keep in mind that
- 02:41definition as we dive into today's lecture.
- 02:46So some of the historical origins of the
- 02:48field are traced back to the post World
- 02:51War Two period where how psychology
- 02:54really emerged as a reaction to some
- 02:58of the changing phenomena in society.
- 03:02First of all,
- 03:02we saw a decline of infectious diseases,
- 03:05but at the same time also a rise of chronic
- 03:07conditions due to the changed lifestyle,
- 03:10working and living conditions in the
- 03:14populations in industrialized nations.
- 03:17And the origins of health psychology
- 03:21technically can be traced back
- 03:23in in the US to this publication
- 03:26of Williams Schofield in 1969,
- 03:28where the Roll of Psychology in the
- 03:31delivery of health services was a
- 03:34report that was published by the
- 03:37American Psychological Association
- 03:39in the American psychologist.
- 03:41And all over the world we saw
- 03:44similar developments taking place,
- 03:46and as an example,
- 03:47French psychology after World War Two.
- 03:50Increasingly clinical psychology was
- 03:52being delivered in health settings.
- 03:55It was influenced by psychoanalysis,
- 03:59social and clinical psychology
- 04:01and psychopathology,
- 04:02and so this blend,
- 04:03in addition with the influence of
- 04:06American social psychology,
- 04:08social cognitive theories of health
- 04:10and illness.
- 04:11Brought it together to this health
- 04:14psychology field that emerged.
- 04:16And increasingly,
- 04:17this new discipline was being disseminated
- 04:20in the hospital setting and in the public
- 04:23health sphere and all around the world.
- 04:25We saw similar developments taking place,
- 04:27such as in the UK,
- 04:29Brazil, South Africa,
- 04:30the Netherlands, Australia,
- 04:31and elsewhere.
- 04:36Other key critical developments that
- 04:39allow this new discipline to emerge is
- 04:42really a variety and and a fortunate
- 04:45set of circumstances and and critical
- 04:48breakthroughs down to we saw evolve.
- 04:51So first of all, we had high-quality
- 04:54epidemiological evidence how behavior
- 04:56and disease incidents were causally
- 04:58related and the most prominent
- 05:00example of that is smoking behavior
- 05:03and the incidence of lung cancer.
- 05:06So that is an important development
- 05:08that took place and then with the
- 05:11rise of the chronic health burden.
- 05:13Of course came also the rise of the
- 05:15cost of healthcare and the need for
- 05:17more effectiveness and efficiency in
- 05:19the delivery of health care and health.
- 05:21Ecology was one of the responses to that.
- 05:25At medical schools we saw also an
- 05:27uptake in teaching of behavioral
- 05:30sciences as a part of the curriculum
- 05:32and an increase in communication skills
- 05:36training to improve patient adherence,
- 05:38patient satisfaction satisfaction.
- 05:40So an increased focus and an openness to
- 05:44that in the medical schools was taking place.
- 05:47We saw more and more clinical psychology
- 05:50behavioral medicine also moving
- 05:52into the primary care setting and
- 05:54collaborative care models being offered.
- 05:56During this era also we had important
- 06:00theories for behavioral change
- 06:02models being developed,
- 06:03tested and used for interventions
- 06:06with evidence based interventions
- 06:08that we still use up until this day
- 06:12that were developed during this period
- 06:15and we actually became pretty good
- 06:17in predicting health behavior change
- 06:19with an emphasis on health beliefs,
- 06:22attitudes and behavior.
- 06:25And then another parallel of development
- 06:28was the field of second neural immunology,
- 06:31where we really saw the relationship
- 06:33between the immune system and the
- 06:36central nervous system and the role
- 06:37of stress being documented in a in
- 06:40a very detailed way,
- 06:41and then finally unfortunately the
- 06:43AIDS and HIV epidemic in the 80s.
- 06:47Also spurred funding in behavioral
- 06:49health research,
- 06:50so those developments were critical
- 06:53for this discipline to emerge.
- 06:57Yale had a very important role also
- 06:59in helping to shape this field of
- 07:02health technology with yields,
- 07:03President Peter Salovey being one of
- 07:06the Inspirators who helped define the
- 07:09field with others and highlighting the
- 07:11fact that people sense of their own health,
- 07:14is not only the reflection of their
- 07:17psychological and physical well being,
- 07:19but also a good predictor for
- 07:22subsequent physical health and how
- 07:24these two are are really intertwined.
- 07:30Further formalization took
- 07:32them place with in 1976.
- 07:36The establishment of the Division
- 07:3838 that was referred to in the
- 07:41beginning of of the introduction.
- 07:43Where the American Psychological
- 07:45Association established a separate
- 07:47division directed towards health psychology
- 07:50and which is still up until today.
- 07:52Very active.
- 07:54You had also one of the foundational
- 07:57conferences that really brought behavioral
- 08:00health and biomedical scientists together.
- 08:03How we should together solve
- 08:05problems of health and illness
- 08:07in an interdisciplinary way.
- 08:09And this was led by Gary
- 08:11Schwartz and Stephen Weiss.
- 08:13And then in the early 80s,
- 08:14the Arden House Conference really
- 08:18scoped out the professional
- 08:20responsibilities and the training
- 08:22requirements for health psychologists.
- 08:25So together these multidisciplinary
- 08:27developments and professionals
- 08:29promoted the importance of behavioral
- 08:32health and and spurring more research
- 08:34and education in this domain.
- 08:40So in the next part I would like to zoom
- 08:43in more on the further subspecialization.
- 08:45Since this new discipline
- 08:48emerged and the observations,
- 08:50the research that led up to this,
- 08:52and while not officially
- 08:54recognized as a subspecialty,
- 08:56it certainly is emerging and the relevance
- 08:59of it has become increasingly clear.
- 09:02So I'm talking about cardiac
- 09:04psychology as people refer to it.
- 09:08Also, a little bit of history here that
- 09:11took place around the same time as health
- 09:14psychology in general was developing,
- 09:16taking us back to the work on
- 09:18type A personality in which I will
- 09:20talk a little bit more in a bit.
- 09:22Going from type A personality
- 09:26to elements of its personality,
- 09:27anger, hostility, focusing,
- 09:29then the next wave of research
- 09:32on depression and the individual
- 09:34elements of all the types of symptoms,
- 09:38somatic versus cognitive,
- 09:40in the toxicity of cardiovascular outcomes.
- 09:44A related concept where the emphasis was
- 09:47on fatigue was vital exhaustion that
- 09:49was also coming from the Netherlands,
- 09:52studied by apples in mass thrift and
- 09:55for some of you might be familiar
- 09:58with the mass Thrift Questionnaire
- 10:00which was developed over there.
- 10:02And then further research on
- 10:05other psychosocial factors,
- 10:06anxiety and of course a large
- 10:08body of research on stress,
- 10:10both acute and chronic stress that
- 10:13was developed in highlighting.
- 10:15Again the work of my mentor going
- 10:18hunting led to a developed a theory and
- 10:21described the phenomenon of the depressed,
- 10:23the distressed type D personality,
- 10:26which is a combination of
- 10:28negative affectivity,
- 10:29the tendency to experience negative emotions.
- 10:32But at the same time,
- 10:34also scoring high on social
- 10:36inhibition so people not sharing
- 10:38their emotions and he documented in
- 10:42several cardiovascular populations
- 10:43that that combination is particularly
- 10:46cardiotoxic as as we refer to it.
- 10:51So the first description that was
- 10:54published and where we saw a parallel
- 10:58trend between people's mindsets and
- 11:01outcomes for coronary artery disease
- 11:04was done by a UK physician in 1950.
- 11:07Where there was a link.
- 11:11Describe between potentially changing
- 11:13lifestyle and working conditions
- 11:15and cardiovascular disease.
- 11:17And his first letter was met with highly
- 11:22contested responses to these observations.
- 11:25So the only thing that this doctor
- 11:28Stewart noted was that there was an
- 11:31increase in cardiovascular disease
- 11:32coronary artery disease during
- 11:34this century is what he describes,
- 11:37and that the malady mostly effects men
- 11:40in middle life and in his further the
- 11:44scription he refers to the work pace
- 11:46and notes a parallel between the two.
- 11:52So that was the first publication in
- 11:55the UK and then a little later in the US
- 11:59there was a duel of cardiologists that
- 12:03presented the work on type A personality,
- 12:08and Rosamond and Friedman described
- 12:11as type A personality that was
- 12:15characterized by an intense Dr.
- 12:18Need for achievement,
- 12:19constantly being on the go.
- 12:22Being very competitive.
- 12:24Hostile and having high anger
- 12:28and and and So what they observed
- 12:32was in this personality profile.
- 12:35When they contrasted it with other
- 12:38personality profiles is that they had
- 12:41a much higher rate of coronary artery
- 12:43disease and also in their subsequent
- 12:46work described higher mortality rates
- 12:49linked with this personality profile.
- 12:53This construct was only studied in men,
- 12:56and as the research accrued.
- 13:00There was some issues with
- 13:03replication of this work and.
- 13:06One started to focus on some of the
- 13:08most toxic aspects of this personality.
- 13:11Trade anger and hostility,
- 13:14which then was studied in isolation.
- 13:17And and so over time this this research
- 13:19line had gotten out of favor because
- 13:22there were several issues with it.
- 13:24And so with that overall,
- 13:26the study of psychosocial factors
- 13:29in coronary artery disease.
- 13:31The enthusiasm for it temporarily lowered.
- 13:37Until this Canadian dual of researchers
- 13:39were able to put the interest for
- 13:42psychosocial factors and cardiac disease
- 13:45back on the map with their landmark
- 13:48study published in the 90s in in JAMA,
- 13:51Nancy, Fraser, Smith and Plasma.
- 13:54Let's billons they followed in Quebec.
- 13:58A population of acute micro
- 14:01cardial infarction survivors.
- 14:0478% of them was male.
- 14:07And they were interviewed with a
- 14:10diagnostic interview for Depression 5
- 14:12to 15 days following the acute event.
- 14:15And they simply looked at their
- 14:17survival state at six months
- 14:19obtained from medical records.
- 14:22And what they saw is that upon assessment,
- 14:25when people had their acute
- 14:28myocardial infarction,
- 14:2916% met the criteria of major depressive
- 14:33disorder at the time of the interview.
- 14:35And then at follow-up,
- 14:38the people who died 50% was
- 14:42marked as depressed at inclusion.
- 14:45And so the mortality in the press was
- 14:48much higher than the non depressed.
- 14:50And all of the mortality causes
- 14:53were cardiac related.
- 14:54So the risk that they observed was a
- 14:57fourfold risk of adverse outcomes.
- 15:00And so this really opened up this
- 15:02line of research again and and
- 15:05gotten a lot of attention.
- 15:07Why?
- 15:07Why is this a landmark paper,
- 15:09even though today we would say this
- 15:10is a small study, short follow-up,
- 15:12etcetera.
- 15:13It reopened a discussion of the
- 15:16importance of psychosocial and behavioral
- 15:18factors in cardiac disease outcomes.
- 15:21And by focusing on depression
- 15:23as opposed to personality,
- 15:25it offered a manageable explanation,
- 15:27for which we know treatments for the
- 15:30mind body link in cardiac disease,
- 15:32and importantly this this work for the
- 15:34first time did not have a gender bias.
- 15:36It also included women.
- 15:38And it also offered an important concept
- 15:42that could serve as an explanation
- 15:45for the racial and gender disparities
- 15:47that were Dan already described
- 15:49in in cardiac disease outcomes.
- 15:53So since then, people have further
- 15:56looked at much larger cohorts.
- 15:582000 plus cohorts in in
- 16:01a variety of populations,
- 16:03stable coronary artery disease.
- 16:07As well as outpatients
- 16:09heart failure patients.
- 16:11Longer follow-up periods and.
- 16:14Essentially,
- 16:15these these observations
- 16:16were replicated further,
- 16:18and then the endpoints that one
- 16:22became attuned to was expanded
- 16:24not only to focus on mortality,
- 16:28but especially the quality of life.
- 16:30Of these patients that go
- 16:32through this experience,
- 16:33adherence issues and lifestyle factors
- 16:36were also related to the study of
- 16:39depression in in this population.
- 16:47The numbers for today that I would
- 16:51like to highlight that overall we we
- 16:54find evidence for acute myocardial
- 16:57infarction survival survivors.
- 16:59That's about one in five percents
- 17:01with a major depressive disorder.
- 17:03And one in three does not meet the
- 17:07threshold for major depressive disorder,
- 17:10but still presents with clinically
- 17:12relevant depressive symptoms,
- 17:14and it doesn't matter whether people
- 17:16meet the formal threshold or have
- 17:19increased depressive symptoms.
- 17:20They are at risk of subsequent
- 17:23adverse outcomes, and that has
- 17:25been multiple times demonstrated.
- 17:27Unfortunately,
- 17:28only a third of patients are recognized
- 17:31as such as depressed during their
- 17:34acute myocardial infarction admission
- 17:36even when systematic screening
- 17:39programs in hospitals are in place.
- 17:42We do find that there is a large
- 17:45under recognition of depression,
- 17:47and the problem is also tied to
- 17:49the care linkage and the linking
- 17:52them to appropriate treatment.
- 17:58Next, I want to highlight a larger global
- 18:02study that has since then been conducted
- 18:05and was published in The Lancet in 2004,
- 18:09which caught a lot of attention in
- 18:13the space of cardiology and allied.
- 18:17Specialties that are interested
- 18:19in cardiovascular populations,
- 18:20and this was a case control design
- 18:23where they studied over 11,000
- 18:26patients who had suffered their first
- 18:30heart attack and they matched them
- 18:33with age and sex matched controls.
- 18:37Control set of over 13,000 individuals.
- 18:41And they recruited them from
- 18:44centers around the world, Asia,
- 18:46Europe, Middle East, Africa,
- 18:47Australia and North and South America.
- 18:50And then they measured
- 18:51the variety of factors,
- 18:53the risk factors that are known
- 18:55to be associated with my cardio,
- 18:57infarction and psychosocial
- 18:59stress was one of them.
- 19:01It was assessed with four simple questions
- 19:04about stress at work and at home.
- 19:06Financial stress and major life
- 19:08events in the past year and then
- 19:11additional questions also ask
- 19:13people about the locus of control
- 19:16and the presence of depression.
- 19:18And here all of these factors that
- 19:21they studied are listed together and
- 19:24put together in a model where the
- 19:27contribution of how much each individual
- 19:30factor contributed to the risk of
- 19:33acute myocardial infarction was presented.
- 19:35Other risk factors studied were smoking,
- 19:39diabetes,
- 19:39hypertension, obesity,
- 19:40intake of fruits and vegetables,
- 19:44exercising alcohol intake and lipid profiles.
- 19:48And so when you look at
- 19:52the psychosocial index,
- 19:53you see that it was a robust predictor of
- 19:57experiencing and acute myocardial infarction.
- 20:00And in this column they also calculated the
- 20:04population attributable attributable risk,
- 20:06which is the proportion of the
- 20:09incidents of getting an AMI in
- 20:12the population between those who
- 20:14are exposed to particular risk
- 20:17factors versus non exposed.
- 20:19Is calculated and so if you focus
- 20:23on the rate for women it has a
- 20:27population attributable risk of 40%.
- 20:30And so if you translate that that's 40,
- 20:33it means that 40% of the incidence
- 20:35of an acute myocardial infarction
- 20:37in women is due to the exposure
- 20:39of psychosocial risk factors.
- 20:41So that was an eye opening study also
- 20:43for the larger medical community to
- 20:46acknowledge the role of psychosocial factors.
- 20:49In cardiovascular disease and
- 20:51in acute myocardial infarction,
- 20:53in particular.
- 20:56So with all this work and follow up,
- 21:00it became clear that stress
- 21:02is a significant risk factor
- 21:03for coronary artery disease.
- 21:05Both incidents and progression.
- 21:06It is very common.
- 21:08It can be confused with cardiac symptoms.
- 21:10It is linked to behavioral and
- 21:13cardiovascular risk factors,
- 21:14and it really forms a barrier
- 21:16for medical interventions.
- 21:18And also sometimes it may be a
- 21:20direct trigger for experiencing
- 21:22acute cardiac events such as.
- 21:25Anger has been linked with the
- 21:28experience of an acute event.
- 21:33Since this research was proposed,
- 21:36many also studied underlying mechanisms
- 21:39that would explain why stress is linked
- 21:44to atherosclerosis and the following
- 21:47model has been proposed as the underlying
- 21:51stress model for cardiovascular disease.
- 21:54Now with atherosclerosis as the
- 21:58underlying pathological process,
- 22:00so chronic stress and affective disorders
- 22:03that lead to the activation of the HP
- 22:07axis and the sympathetic nervous system.
- 22:10And it further affects our behaviors,
- 22:13how our health behaviors and and due to
- 22:16the prolonged activation and the imbalance
- 22:19of the sympathetic nervous system,
- 22:21there are heightened
- 22:23physiological responsiveness to,
- 22:25to acute stressors.
- 22:27Also interactions with chronic stressors
- 22:29that further cause more downstream effects,
- 22:33such as the ones listed on the right,
- 22:36increased inflammation,
- 22:37platelet reactivity and endothelial.
- 22:40Dysfunction to name a few of those effects.
- 22:46So following these insights,
- 22:48people also came together to design several
- 22:51interventions to address depression as a
- 22:55risk factor for cardiovascular disease
- 22:57and depression and stress reduction.
- 22:59Interventions have been developed and
- 23:02tested mostly in coronary populations and
- 23:06the most prominent ones highlighted here.
- 23:09And so these trials they overall were
- 23:12successful in improving depression,
- 23:14symptoms, quality of life.
- 23:16But at the same time,
- 23:19the hopes and the fields were high
- 23:21also to be able to reduce adverse
- 23:23cardiovascular events and which did not
- 23:27materialize for many of these trials.
- 23:30Often due to the ways the studies
- 23:33were designed or powered, however,
- 23:35this trial out of Sweden which focused
- 23:39specifically on women who survived an
- 23:42acute myocardial infarction or underwent
- 23:45a major coronary revascularization.
- 23:48They offered these women a program where
- 23:53the focus was on psychoeducation stress
- 23:57reduction through relaxation training,
- 23:59self monitoring,
- 24:01cognitive restructuring and to
- 24:03realize a more adaptive coping skill
- 24:06set when they were dealing with
- 24:09family and work related stressors.
- 24:11Ends simultaneously also focus on self care
- 24:14and compliance with the medical regimen,
- 24:17and so this trial did show a significant
- 24:20survival effect that was actually
- 24:22threefold in comparison with the
- 24:25usual care for long term mortality.
- 24:28So so these are some of the critical
- 24:32trials that were conducted,
- 24:36and our colleague Matthew Berg,
- 24:39Dr Burke,
- 24:39was also one of the key pioneers
- 24:41of many of those.
- 24:42Interventions that were tested
- 24:45in coronary artery populations,
- 24:48so all of these developments in
- 24:52the cardiovascular population gave
- 24:54rise to what we now today referred
- 24:57to as cardiac psychology,
- 24:59and it was described in in these works.
- 25:02That that this is really a
- 25:05subspecialization of health psychology.
- 25:07And, as I mentioned,
- 25:08colleague Doctor Matthew Burke
- 25:10being one of the lead figures of
- 25:13this subspecialization The EPA also
- 25:15recognizes this term of cardiac psychology,
- 25:19although it it does label it as
- 25:22an emerging subspecialty.
- 25:24So it's still very much under development.
- 25:29So in what comes next?
- 25:32I want to make the case that.
- 25:34Hard mind and vascular really are so
- 25:36intertwined that we should be looking
- 25:38at the spectrum of cardiovascular
- 25:40diseases and also when we think
- 25:42about psychosocial factors and keep
- 25:44that whole entire spectrum in mind.
- 25:47And it also highlights the
- 25:49need for further support.
- 25:51Specialization and expansion.
- 25:52Early insights in in these populations
- 25:55and our treatment models and how we
- 25:57translate them to clinical care.
- 26:01As you all know, atherosclerosis is a
- 26:05generalized disease and significant
- 26:07atherothrombotic events may manifest
- 26:10in different arteries of the body.
- 26:14It may happen in in your carotid
- 26:16artery in in lower extremity arteries,
- 26:18and much of our work has focused on
- 26:21on that lower extremity population,
- 26:23peripheral artery disease,
- 26:24or PAD as one refers to.
- 26:27And it is often still a very
- 26:31underrecognized condition,
- 26:31for which there is great unawareness
- 26:34and also under treatment.
- 26:35And what we see is that the
- 26:38cardiovascular event rates are
- 26:40often worse than as we see for
- 26:43coronary populations because.
- 26:44That field has progressed so much
- 26:47further and risk management and
- 26:49and recognition and population
- 26:51awareness as opposed to other.
- 26:54Atherothrombotic diseases on
- 26:55the cardiovascular spectrum.
- 26:59Before I highlight on PED,
- 27:01I also want to make a mention
- 27:04of the REACH registry,
- 27:06which was another big global study,
- 27:09a landmark study that studied the spectrum
- 27:13of atherosclerosis in a global setting.
- 27:17And the strength of that study was that
- 27:20it it focused on coronary artery disease,
- 27:23peripheral artery disease,
- 27:24and cerebrovascular disease,
- 27:25but really demonstrated that these are
- 27:28manifestations of the same process.
- 27:31Many people have overlapping disease,
- 27:33and it also contrasted some of the
- 27:37differences in outcomes and under
- 27:39treatment for these conditions.
- 27:42So there was also a cohort of PD patients,
- 27:44and as you see there is much overlap
- 27:47with coronary artery disease as
- 27:48well as cerebrovascular disease.
- 27:50So patients may never present
- 27:52with with an isolated condition.
- 27:54There's always that broader conglomerate
- 27:56of risk that we need to be in mind,
- 28:00and it depends on where the
- 28:03atherothrombotic events manifest
- 28:05first as to what you're presenting.
- 28:09Complaint is and how you entered
- 28:11the system for cardiovascular care.
- 28:17So the PD disease burden to give you
- 28:21an idea when people present with PD is
- 28:24it's often a marker of very aggressive
- 28:28generalized atherosclerotic disease.
- 28:30And resulting in in reduced what
- 28:33filling their leg arteries and over 200
- 28:37million people are affected globally.
- 28:39And in the US alone,
- 28:41we have a population of over 8,000,000,
- 28:45and so it's on the rise in both high income
- 28:47and low income and middle income countries.
- 28:49Both men and women.
- 28:51And it's rapidly growing due to the
- 28:53aging population and steady increase in
- 28:56obesity and diabetes rates and and so
- 28:58it's a serious public health problem.
- 29:02Katie can present as a
- 29:05spectrum of manifestations.
- 29:07There's people who don't know
- 29:09they have it but and are labeled
- 29:12as asymptomatic when they do
- 29:15undergo noninvasive testing.
- 29:17They might see that there's
- 29:18reduced Platt flow,
- 29:19but do not present with active symptoms.
- 29:23And often that is because
- 29:26of a sedentary lifestyle.
- 29:28But these patients are also at
- 29:30risk of having adverse outcomes
- 29:32and then further down the spectrum.
- 29:35There are symptomatic manifestations,
- 29:37pain while walking that has a different.
- 29:41Gradations of severity and then
- 29:43towards the end we have critical limb
- 29:46ischemia manifestations where the
- 29:48limb is really in danger and people
- 29:51are dealing with non healing wounds,
- 29:54wounds and a high risk of amputation.
- 29:57So people if patients present with PD
- 30:00in spite of optimal medical management,
- 30:04the residual risk for major adverse
- 30:07cardiovascular events and live
- 30:09events is about 5 to 10% per year,
- 30:11which is pretty high.
- 30:13If we look at critical limits,
- 30:14chemia one in five has does not
- 30:19survive at 6 to months to a year
- 30:22and about half of the patients
- 30:24would seali does not survive.
- 30:27At five years.
- 30:28It is also very costly and most
- 30:31of the expenditures are incurred
- 30:33for people's inpatient care,
- 30:35which often consists of a lot of repeat
- 30:41revascularizations and complicated stays.
- 30:44Same risk factors as the
- 30:46coronary artery disease.
- 30:48However,
- 30:48smoking,
- 30:49obesity,
- 30:49and aging are one of the more
- 30:54prominent ones as well as
- 30:56diabetes and a lot of people with
- 31:00this condition also develop.
- 31:02Chronic kidney disease.
- 31:04And so the disease profile
- 31:07is fairly complex.
- 31:10So despite the magnitude of the
- 31:12problem and the role of lifestyle
- 31:14factors also for this condition,
- 31:16there's only been recent interest
- 31:18that there has been a focus on studies
- 31:21psychosocial factors in this condition,
- 31:23with most of the work highlighting
- 31:26the role of depression and in this
- 31:28illustrating that the prevalence really
- 31:30is very similar to the ones reported
- 31:33in coronary artery disease populations,
- 31:35both in stable populations as well
- 31:37as in people undergoing procedures,
- 31:39as demonstrated. Year across these cohorts.
- 31:45Also concerning is that in the US
- 31:48this is a sample that we studied a
- 31:52national sample of inpatient admissions.
- 31:55Where we see a rise in those admissions over
- 31:59the last decade for critical limits chemia,
- 32:02the most severe manifestation.
- 32:04And what we see is that the most rapid
- 32:08increase in those admissions take
- 32:10place in populations younger than 65.
- 32:14You see the squares here representing
- 32:17men below 65, and then also rapid
- 32:21uptake in women of below 65 years,
- 32:23which is very typical of how we know it,
- 32:27because typically it is disease
- 32:30presents in older populations.
- 32:32And then with those admissions,
- 32:34one in five admissions is characterized with
- 32:37a comorbid anxiety and depression diagnosis,
- 32:40and these are recognized diagnosis.
- 32:42So possibly only representing
- 32:44the tip of the iceberg.
- 32:46But here we also see a steady
- 32:49increase over time in the last
- 32:52decade for both PD and and CLI.
- 32:54Which may be related to the younger
- 32:57population that is is affected by
- 33:00these admissions or better recognition,
- 33:02or a true greater prevalence,
- 33:04and that we don't know.
- 33:07And if we zoom in on the risk
- 33:09profile of these patients,
- 33:11we see that underrepresented minorities.
- 33:15People without insurance are more likely
- 33:18to represent it in the younger group,
- 33:21and they also present with lower
- 33:24household income, more diabetes.
- 33:28Obesity prior amputation,
- 33:30addiction and mood disorders,
- 33:33and this is a profile that we
- 33:35really don't see as much reoccurring
- 33:38in the older populations.
- 33:42Recognize depression in patients
- 33:44with Celine during an admission
- 33:46is also associated with a higher
- 33:49odds of undergoing and imputation,
- 33:51both for endovascular procedures
- 33:53presented here on the left and
- 33:56surgical revascularization.
- 33:58And so whether this is
- 33:59constantly related or not,
- 34:00the fact is that people who
- 34:03who go through this experience
- 34:05are much more likely to also
- 34:07copresent with a major depression.
- 34:10Depression.
- 34:13In this same cohort,
- 34:15we demonstrated that having
- 34:18comorbid depression translated
- 34:20into a longer length of stay,
- 34:22both for endovascular procedures
- 34:23as well as surgical procedures,
- 34:25and it also results in higher
- 34:28total charges for their states are
- 34:31really it is a group that warns
- 34:34more care and has is at risk of
- 34:37more complex disease outcomes.
- 34:43When we pull all the work done in PD
- 34:46together on the risk factor of depression,
- 34:48which we recently did with this
- 34:50meta analysis in our group,
- 34:52we see a definite trend emerging for
- 34:55an association between depression and
- 34:57mortality as we see in the top panel for
- 35:00major adverse live events and amputation.
- 35:02Unfortunately, there is still a possibility
- 35:04of data out there to show that link,
- 35:07but we do see announcing a nonsignificant
- 35:10trend towards higher risk emerging.
- 35:15Making a switch now to the portrait
- 35:17registry work that we have done
- 35:20where we followed people with a new
- 35:22diagnosis of PTSD and who presented at
- 35:25vascular clinics and sought out care
- 35:28at their vascular specialty clinic in
- 35:31the US and Netherlands and Australia.
- 35:34So we see that 35% either presents with a
- 35:39positive screen on depressive symptoms,
- 35:41anxiety, or perceived stress upon arrival.
- 35:45And a year following one in five
- 35:48unique patients still score high on
- 35:51either one of those questionnaires
- 35:53for those depressive symptoms,
- 35:56anxiety and perceived stress.
- 35:59So people do.
- 36:00Report these symptoms as they navigate
- 36:03their care and zooming in on the
- 36:06experience of stress for this population.
- 36:09When people report increase scores
- 36:11for perceived stress at 2 subsequent
- 36:14times as they are navigating their
- 36:17care within that study, we.
- 36:20Linked that with their long term
- 36:22survival and what we see is that
- 36:25in the four year subsequent to
- 36:27receiving care for PD,
- 36:28those who reported the
- 36:29highest trust experiences.
- 36:30They also have much higher.
- 36:34Mortality rates over the long
- 36:38term observation period.
- 36:40Same what we see in the disease,
- 36:43specific health status and
- 36:46trajectory of these patients.
- 36:48People in blue are the ones who
- 36:51represent those with chronic stress
- 36:54experiences and their health status
- 36:56scores are mapped out over the
- 36:58year of their treatment and what
- 37:01we see is that the differences
- 37:03accomplished between distressed
- 37:04and non distressed populations is
- 37:06exceeding 3 times the minimally
- 37:08clinically important difference.
- 37:10Overdose health status outcomes.
- 37:12So really very impactful and detrimental
- 37:15to their PD rehabilitation trajectory.
- 37:21We then further looked at two
- 37:23who was experiencing these
- 37:25chronic stress experiences,
- 37:26and we found that these chronic stress
- 37:30experiences can be reliably predicted.
- 37:33We assessed their stress at baseline 1/6
- 37:36and 12 month follow up and we did that
- 37:40in acute myocardial infarction cohort,
- 37:43which was our derivation cohort
- 37:45for developing this model and we
- 37:48validated our model in the PD
- 37:50cohort that I just described.
- 37:52And again, chronic stress was
- 37:54defined as A at least two follow-up
- 37:58assessment periods with exceeding
- 38:01scores above the population norms.
- 38:05Factors that explain people's chronic stress,
- 38:08experiences and the predictive
- 38:11probability was 77% for the model
- 38:14that we developed and younger age
- 38:17female sex and socioeconomic factors.
- 38:21Economic hardship in particular,
- 38:23access to care barriers and low social
- 38:26support really explained why people of
- 38:29course were experiencing this chronic stress.
- 38:32Knowing that this population
- 38:34is so much affected by it,
- 38:36this is important treatment information
- 38:39to integrate as people get offered
- 38:44expensive procedures and and complicated
- 38:47disease management trajectories.
- 38:51And then lastly I want to highlight how
- 38:54depression and stress in PD populations may
- 38:57relate to their physical activity levels,
- 38:59and that's that concludes the portrait
- 39:03data that I wanted to highlight.
- 39:06The cornerstone of PD management at class.
- 39:09One recommendation is that people
- 39:11get off for walking therapy and they
- 39:14are encouraged to walk three times
- 39:16a week for at least 30 minutes.
- 39:18To stimulate their cardiovascular
- 39:20fitness and growth of collaterals.
- 39:22To improve the provision in their legs.
- 39:25In portrait, we had the depression,
- 39:27perceived stress,
- 39:28repeated assessments available,
- 39:30but we also had repeated assessments
- 39:33for physical activity and we took
- 39:36the same questions as were done
- 39:38for the inter heart study.
- 39:40The global study where we could
- 39:43rank people as sedentary,
- 39:45engaged in wild activity
- 39:48or strenuous exercise.
- 39:51And here are the levels of depression
- 39:53and stress in those line graphs and
- 39:56then the bar charts really present
- 39:59the sedentary behavior levels and you
- 40:01can see that this is very high upon
- 40:05presentation with a new diagnosis,
- 40:0744% of reports being sedentary at baseline.
- 40:11And even though those levels
- 40:12go down over time,
- 40:13they still remain pretty high.
- 40:17And when we tried to reconstruct the
- 40:21causal pathways of stress and physical
- 40:23activity in PV with generalized
- 40:26structural equation modeling,
- 40:27we see that stress at the
- 40:30top here and lowered physical
- 40:32activity reinforce each other,
- 40:35and we see bidirectional relations emerge,
- 40:39meaning that a decrease in physical
- 40:41activity results in higher stress
- 40:43experiences and higher stress
- 40:45experiences result in decreased.
- 40:47Physical activity which is a
- 40:50problem for the management of
- 40:52of these patients and disease.
- 40:55For the pression,
- 40:56we see a slightly different picture,
- 40:58and as you can see the
- 41:01following strong trends emerged.
- 41:03Patients who lower their level of physical
- 41:08activity at baseline or then result.
- 41:11Subsequently they present with
- 41:14higher levels of depression and
- 41:16these effects are reinforced further
- 41:19downstream of the PD rehab trajectory.
- 41:22Underscoring that.
- 41:23Again,
- 41:23the role of physical activity and the
- 41:27risk of depression go hand in hand and.
- 41:31Need to be seen together as
- 41:34as one manages this disease.
- 41:37So the key takeaways from this line
- 41:40of research are, not surprisingly,
- 41:42that depression and perceived stress
- 41:44are very common in PD that PD and
- 41:47overall is on the rise with increasingly
- 41:50complex patient profiles and people
- 41:53presenting with more severe disease
- 41:56and a rapid growth in younger populations.
- 41:59Number two,
- 42:00what I like to highlight is that it is
- 42:03associated with increased mortality,
- 42:05poor PD, health status,
- 42:07recovery trajectories,
- 42:08higher cost and longer admissions and #3.
- 42:12We do know who is at risk
- 42:14of high stress experiences,
- 42:15and we also know that it is.
- 42:19Very much intertwined with people's
- 42:21levels of physical activity,
- 42:23which is part of of the cornerstone
- 42:27of PD management,
- 42:28behavioral activation and and.
- 42:31Physical activity to achieve successful
- 42:35outcomes and stress and depression
- 42:39may exacerbate the cycle of of
- 42:42sedentary behavior in this population.
- 42:48So in the final part of my presentation,
- 42:52I would like to make the case for
- 42:54how integrated care options for
- 42:56cardiovascular populations and
- 42:58specialty care are needed to come
- 43:01to a more value based care delivery.
- 43:03So, as I highlighted throughout my talk,
- 43:06atherosclerotic disease is a
- 43:08generalized process and manifestations
- 43:11can occur in the coronary,
- 43:13carotid and lower extremity arteries.
- 43:15And even though the interest in the
- 43:18field started in coronary disease
- 43:21because those manifestations were
- 43:23probably also more dramatic and and,
- 43:26and that's where everything started.
- 43:29I feel like we're just at the beginning of
- 43:32documenting and understanding the impacts
- 43:34of other manifestations on people's lives.
- 43:36I haven't even covered
- 43:38carotid artery stenosis,
- 43:39which is another unique set of symptoms
- 43:44and care interactions that need to
- 43:48be considered for those populations.
- 43:52So really it makes sense to.
- 43:55Start broadening the subspecialty
- 43:57of cardiac psychology and and
- 43:59to include vascular populations.
- 44:02Because it's really a spectrum of disease.
- 44:05And recently we came together with a
- 44:08few colleagues here at Yale colleagues,
- 44:11psychologist and cardiologist were we.
- 44:16Reflected on the role of what cardiovascular
- 44:19psychology or health psychology could
- 44:22contribute to cardiovascular care.
- 44:25There is a, of course,
- 44:26a role for intervention,
- 44:28design,
- 44:29delivery and testing,
- 44:30and there's a role to address
- 44:33psychosocial behavioral factors
- 44:35to promote lifestyle changes that
- 44:37we often recommend these patients
- 44:40to make and the support that they
- 44:43need to help make these changes.
- 44:46And the impact on their health outcomes.
- 44:49Health psychology can contribute
- 44:50to the assessment and the design
- 44:53and the analysis and interpretation
- 44:55of psychosocial risk factors,
- 44:57both at the patient level,
- 44:59but also measures at the programmatic level.
- 45:02As a lot of of the fields in in
- 45:04in medical specialties and in
- 45:07behavioral healthcare are moving
- 45:09into measurement based care.
- 45:11Where we let patients.
- 45:17Say what quality of care means and and
- 45:20and how that is reflected in the scores
- 45:24on on these domains of assessment.
- 45:27Treating comorbid mental mental health
- 45:29disorders in the context of medical
- 45:32illness and facilitate patient care team
- 45:35relationships and provide insight and.
- 45:38Expertise and the role of psychology
- 45:41for physiological interactions that take
- 45:44place within cardiovascular diseases.
- 45:46And understanding how it affects the
- 45:49patients experience and in the last
- 45:51decade a lot of the treatments for
- 45:54coronary and cardiovascular disease
- 45:56in general has gotten increasingly
- 45:59more technical and with a lot of
- 46:02technological innovations taking place.
- 46:03So it's also important to consider what
- 46:06treatment options are available and
- 46:08how that impacts the disease process
- 46:10and the role of psychosocial factors.
- 46:13And so there too is a role for cardiac.
- 46:16Would carry a vascular sychology.
- 46:20So for integrated PED care it is
- 46:23not only what are the patient wants
- 46:25stents or or what are surgical
- 46:28bypass is the right way to go,
- 46:30or supervised exercise is
- 46:31something that people might want
- 46:33to try and the medications to
- 46:36lower their cardiovascular risk.
- 46:38But it is also do people have the
- 46:41support and the capacity to navigate all
- 46:45of these disease experiences and the
- 46:47interaction with their treatment and.
- 46:49Is their care being addressed
- 46:52from a whole person perspective
- 46:54and or psychosocial factors also
- 46:57considered for the disease management?
- 47:01So increasingly our teams become
- 47:04multidisciplinary and models of
- 47:06Co treatment and cross training
- 47:08actually make sense if we want
- 47:11to meet the patient's needs.
- 47:13And as specialties move in and out
- 47:16the circle depending on on the
- 47:18different needs and we feel that.
- 47:20There is definitely a place also
- 47:22for health psychology to help
- 47:25support the specialty care of
- 47:27these populations as they manage
- 47:29their cardiovascular condition.
- 47:34Many of of the goals for managing a
- 47:36depression or managing stress and managing
- 47:39peripheral artery disease as discussed,
- 47:42overlap, and so increasingly an
- 47:45interdisciplinary team based approach
- 47:47makes sense to to realize more
- 47:50successful outcomes in this population.
- 47:56Collaborative work and care has been
- 47:59shown to be effective for medical
- 48:02populations such as diabetes.
- 48:04Oftentimes, these models were offered
- 48:06offered in the primary care setting,
- 48:09and so there is a model for success
- 48:12that has been demonstrated.
- 48:14But with the increasingly complex
- 48:17populations and the intensity of
- 48:19care that people undergo and complex
- 48:23interactions with their treatments.
- 48:25There's a case to make to offer behavioral
- 48:27health care within the specialty setting,
- 48:30as it also is perhaps desired from
- 48:33the patient's perspective and from a
- 48:36referral and care linkage perspective.
- 48:38Being part of the same treatment
- 48:40team is is something to strive for.
- 48:46We're finding ourselves at a new juncture.
- 48:49Is is what I feel.
- 48:52We described the post war chronic
- 48:55disease burden, but we're still
- 48:57dealing with that disease burden.
- 48:59And as you look at the
- 49:02global burden of disease,
- 49:04ischemic heart disease tops this list
- 49:08in both populations 50 + 75 years
- 49:11and plus or populations age rapidly.
- 49:14And the demands on our health services
- 49:17and healthcare systems continue to
- 49:19increase and so this is something really.
- 49:22Policy makers and healthcare
- 49:25administrators need to integrate
- 49:28in their policy and and the way we
- 49:32deliver and design care for patients
- 49:34and how that care is value based and
- 49:37and it is a good return on investment.
- 49:40So there's still an enormous wave of of
- 49:42new challenges for the sustainability of
- 49:45our healthcare systems that is coming.
- 49:47Towards us.
- 49:50So we found ourselves at a such a
- 49:52junction before as I explained in
- 49:54the beginning of my presentation,
- 49:56but today's reality adds a little
- 49:58bit more complexities into the mix,
- 50:00so I gains in prevention for
- 50:04cardiovascular disease.
- 50:05Seem to need to be reinvigorated.
- 50:07Given that younger populations present
- 50:09earlier with much more aggressive
- 50:12disease due to lifestyle factors.
- 50:14Cost are really unsustainable.
- 50:17There's highly technological care
- 50:19being incentivized over basic high
- 50:22value care and the people who have
- 50:24access to that highly technological
- 50:27care versus those who don't.
- 50:30Those disparities continue to increase,
- 50:33and there's an enormous burden
- 50:36towards vulnerable populations who
- 50:38even have difficulties accessing
- 50:40care and are being diagnosed early.
- 50:43And so it does show up late in the
- 50:46disease process with more complex disease,
- 50:49and we see decreasing life expectancy
- 50:53in younger generations because of that.
- 50:56And and then we face the post
- 50:58pandemic and and global challenges,
- 51:01which really has increased the mental
- 51:04health burden overall and strain
- 51:07communities that are suffering.
- 51:09So health psychology can yet again
- 51:12provide an answer to these complexities
- 51:15and how to deal with this reality
- 51:17and contribute to more value based
- 51:20care models that can address medical
- 51:23populations from a whole person.
- 51:27Perspective and offer our expertise in
- 51:30in the chronic disease trajectories.
- 51:36I would like to thank all of the
- 51:40faculty collaborators here at
- 51:42Yale and outside and and globally.
- 51:44Also, who have contributed to
- 51:46this work and the people in our
- 51:49research team and here at Yale,
- 51:51but also at the America Heart Institute.
- 51:54In Kansas City and the team in in Tillburg,
- 51:58and of course all the patients
- 52:01that have contributed to this
- 52:03data of of this body of work.
- 52:06And I want to thank you for
- 52:08listening to my talk and having me
- 52:10in this grand Round series and also
- 52:12would like to encourage people to
- 52:14join our upcoming health Ecology
- 52:17Virtual Forum happening May 20.
- 52:20Where the growth and contributions of
- 52:22health psychology will be further discussed,
- 52:24and I'd be glad to take any questions
- 52:26and thank you for listening.