TREATING HEART PATIENTS BY ENHANCING POSITIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY INTERVENTION

Abstract

Objective: To manage the symptoms of coronary heart disease throughenhancing positive emotions.

Methodology: In this cross sectional study, data was collected from a sample ofcardiac patients from Institute of Cardiology Multan from 1st March to 31st May2017. CHD patients of this sample were selected on the basis of their similarcharacteristics and equal scores on measures. Then utilizing the experimentalapproach, CHD patients were randomly assigned to the intervention and controlgroups. Only CHD patients in intervention group received the positive emotiontherapy. Both groups provided data on measures of gratitude, optimism,happiness, and CHD symptoms before and after administering positive emotionintervention to intervention group. In this study independent and paired sample ttests,the analyses of comparison between and within the both groups wereemployed.

Results: A sample of 127 cardiac patients were included in the study. CHDpatients were 40. Patients were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=20)and control groups (n=20). Only CHD patients in intervention group received thepositive emotion therapy. A significant decrease in CHD symptoms and anincrease in positive emotions of patients in intervention group after receiving thepositive therapy than before was found. Patients of intervention group were foundwith low CHD symptoms and high positive emotions after therapy than that ofcontrol group.

Conclusion: Thus the finding of the present study suggests positive psychologyintervention was found effective for enhancing positive emotions in CHD patients.