Cardiac rehabilitation: a review of current developments.

An overview is given of the current status of cardiac rehabilitation and its effects on morbidity and mortality. While there is an emphasis in most current programs upon physical exercise as an important autonomous risk factor for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), there is at the same time a tendency in cardiac rehabilitation to go beyond mere physical exercise towards adding more multimodal psychoeducational modules in rehabilitation programs; those approaches are aimed at educating the patient about a less risky and healthier way of life. Such psycho-education is more and more aimed at the "toxic" aspects of negative emotions.

Assessment of hostility in patients with coronary heart disease.

One of the problems in efforts to more clearly conceptualize hostility is the amount of method variance, which ranges from self-report techniques to interview-based methods and mirrors the multidimensional nature of hostility and related constructs. In addition, rather few studies concerned with the assessment of hostility have specifically used samples of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to examine the multidimensionality of the construct of hostility in a sample of male coronary patients with some frequently used instruments.

Health Psychology 2000:The Development of Professional Health Psychology: European Federation of Professional Psychologists' Associations (EFPPA) Task Force on Health Psychology Final Report.

This Final Report of the European Federation of Professional Psychologists' Associations (EFPPA) Task Force on Health Psychology defines the nature and scope of health psychology and its possible future development to the year 2000 and beyond. Training needs and objectives are specified for professional health psychologists working in Europe. Practical and policy implications of medical progress and societal changes are discussed.

[Medium-long-term good results of vertical gastroplasty in the treatment of morbid obesity].

To determine the long-term results of the surgical treatment of patients with morbid obesity, a retrospective analysis of the patients in whom a vertical banded gastroplasty according to Mason was performed in the period 1982-1990 was carried out in the department of General Surgery, St. Joseph Hospital, Veldhoven, the Netherlands. In a series of 20 patients (4 men and 16 women) with a mean age of 32 (17-53) years who were eligible for treatment according to international criteria surgery was performed.