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Compared to healthy subjects, patients with AF often manifested a significant impairment in QoL because of the pervasiveness of the arrhythmia.However, these data are inconclusive.AIMS.The objectives of the study were: 1) to evaluate, by reliable methods, psychological distress and quality of life in patients with AF; 2) to compare these psychological correlates between the clinical group and the general population; 3) to evaluate the impact of electrical cardio-version (ECV) on psychological distress and quality of life; 4) to identify the relationship between psychological variables and clinical outcomes (cardiovascular events and/or mortality) at a short-term follow-up.METHODS.The sample was formed by a consecutive series of 25 patients (16 males and 9 females; mean age:66.4±10.5 years) with persistent AF, scheduled for ECV, and 25 healthy subjects from the general population, matched by age and sex with the AF group.All the subjects were evaluated by both observer-(the semi-structured interview based on Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research-DCPR, to detect type A behavior) and self-rated methods (Psychosocial Index-PSI and Symptom Questionnaire-SQ).RESULTS.Concerning self-rated questionnaires and selfperceived QoL, the AF group did not significantly differ from the general population; however 36% of the clinical group satisfied criteria for type A behavior pattern, significantly differing from controls (x2(1)=11.484; p=.001).At the follow-up (mean time: 8.3±5.1 months), one patient died for cardiac complications.Among the remaining patients,66.7% had only one successful ECV, 8.3% had a second ECV due to recurrences in AF and 25% had multiple unsuccessful ECVs.Results showed a significant scores reduction on SQ total dimensions of anxiety (p<.05), depression (p<.01) and somatization (p<.05).CONCLUSION.These results seem to disagree with some findings in the literature underlining the psychosocial impairment in people with AF.However, the high prevalence of type A behavior, quite known in other cardiovascular diseases, should be better investigated in patients with AF.