New perspectives on Type A behavior: a psychiatric point of view.

OBJECTIVE

To propose an answer to Medicine's confusion about what Type A Behavior is.

METHOD: To critically review early writings about Type A as well as current literature with a focus on five key articles which are frequently mentioned in medical and lay literature as containing relevant data undermining the Type A hypothesis. These five are critically evaluated for their definition of Type A, method of diagnosing Type A, nature of the cohort studied, and logic of their conclusions.

RESULTS

There is a failure in the literature to distinguish between Axis I symptoms and Axis II personality traits; the same term, Type A, being applied to quite different phenomena.

CONCLUSIONS

Type A should be defined as a Axis II Personality Disorder, and a new term, Stress Disorder (or Hostility Disorder) to the Axis I symptoms. This opens up endless possibilities in Medicine for Stress Disorder research, since Medicine can rightly argue that the research is to better treat the Stress Disorder disease, that precedes Coronary Artery disease.