Depression, anxiety and sleep disorders are psychological risk factors that could impact the quality of life in cardiovascular patients. In this study, a theoretical model on the complex relationships between coping mechanisms, depression, anxiety and sleep disorders was studied in a sample of 274 cardiovascular patients. The maladaptive cognitive-emotional coping strategies that appeared to be correlated with these negative emotional pathologies were self-blaming, ruminating and catastrophizing, and the adaptive ones were positive refocusing, refocusing on planning and positive reassessment. A theoretical model that explains these relationships at a process level appears to have statistical significance and to have adequate goodness of fit. In this model, there are statistically significant direct effects of maladaptive and adaptive coping mechanisms on depression and anxiety, a significant effect of anxiety on depression, as well as statistically significant positive effects of depression and anxiety on sleep disorders. The age has been controlled for in the model and the severity of the illness appears to have a moderating role in this context, with a stronger effect of anxiety on depression for patients with more severe illnesses. The practical implications of these results in psychological counselling addressed to cardiovascular patients are discussed.
Key words: cardiovascular disease, illness severity, depression, anxiety, sleep, coping.
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