Efficacy of secondary prevention and rehabilitation programs with distant support in patients with atrial fibrillation after intervention procedures: impact on psychological status.

Aim      To evaluate the effectivity of secondary prevention/rehabilitation programs with remote support for the psychological condition of patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) following interventional procedures (radiofrequency catheter ablation and cryoablation).Material and methods  This prospective, controlled, randomized clinical study was performed in three parallel groups. Each group consisted of 45 patients with AF after interventional procedures. In groups 1 and 2, secondary prevention/rehabilitation programs with remote support were performed, including a single individual in-hospital counseling (on risk factors of AF and their control and on major aspects of the disease, treatment and prevention of complications) and three months of remote support (by phone in group 1 and by e-mail in group 2). Patients of group 3 (control group) received standard recommendations at discharge from the hospital. The psychological status was evaluated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the PHQ-9 questionnaire, the Spielberg-Hanin scale for reactive and personal anxiety, and the visual analogue scale for stress assessment. The follow-up duration was 12 months.Results At the end of the follow-up period, the proportion of patients with anxiety symptoms considerably decreased in both intervention groups (р<0.001 for each group) and was significantly less than in the control group (р<0.001 for both comparisons). Also, in intervention group 1, the proportion of patients with clinically pronounced anxiety symptoms was significantly decreased. For 12 months of follow-up, the severity of depressive symptoms significantly decreased in all three groups. However, in both intervention groups, this decrease was significantly greater than in the control group (р<0.001 for group 1 and р=0.020 for group 2). In both intervention groups at 12 months, the stress level was significantly reduced whereas in the control group, it remained practically unchanged. The greatest (50% on average) decrease in the stress level was observed in intervention group 2.Conclusion      Secondary prevention and rehabilitation programs with remote support during a 12-month follow-up resulted in improvement of the psychological status in patients with AF after interventional procedures.