Abstract

The pathophysiology of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) predisposes patients to neurobehavioral problems. This study was designed to assess differences in neurobehavioral functioning between patients diagnosed with myocardial infarction (MI) with and without type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and their age, gender, and education-matched community controls. It was proposed that the neurobehavioral functioning of MI patients with T2DM would be different from that of MI patients without T2DM as well as from that of community controls. The Neurobehavioral Functioning Inventory (NFI) (Kreutzer, Seel, & Marwitz, 1999) was administered to MI patients aged between 35 and 55 and the controls. To infer the proposed differences between the groups, Multivariate Analysis of Covariance and Univariate Analysis of Variances was carried out. The results of the study endorse the additive effects of T2DM, as a significant difference was found between the three groups in neurobehavioral functioning, except in communication. MI patients with T2DM scored higher on depression, somatic, memory, aggression and motor subscales compared to MI patients without T2DM and the controls. Moreover, women MI patients scored higher on somatic, memory, aggression and motor deficits; however, no significant gender differences are observed for depression and communication. The study will help direct cardiologists in the formation of realistic goals for MI patients. Future work can scrutinize the additive scrutinize the additive effects of T2DM across other types of cardiac conditions, e.g. stable and unstable angina.