Increased Anxiety in Partners of Patients with a Cardioverter‐Defibrillator: The Role of Indication for ICD Therapy, Shocks, and Personality

Abstract

Partners had higher levels of anxiety but not depression than ICD patients. Partner distress could be attributed not only to the partner's personality, but also to patient clinical characteristics, primarily secondary prophylaxis for ICD therapy. These results indicate that information on the clinical characteristics of the patient in addition to partner characteristics may help identify partners at risk of distress.