Meeting the psychosocial needs of pacemaker patients.

A review of the literature concerning patients who have received permanently implanted cardiac pacemakers indicates that a substantial number of these patients experience difficulties in adjusting to their medical condition. Common feelings among these patients are anxiety and depression. It is suggested that difficulties often arise from the patient's misconceptions about the pacemaker and inadequate psychosocial support. To assist such patients in their adjustment, the Pacemaker Support Program was developed to provide psychosocial counseling and pacemaker education from the preoperative phase through to the outpatient pacemaker follow-up clinic phase. In the year of the program's operation a marked decline in adjustment problems has been observed, the program has been readily integrated into the hospital routine, and it has been enthusiastically accepted by both the hospital staff and the patients.