Psychosocial impact of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) in young adults with Tetralogy of Fallot

Objective To investigate the psychosocial impact of having an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in adults with Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF). Methods Included were 26 ToF-patients with an ICD (age 44 ± 12 years), and two control groups consisting of 28 ToF-patients without an ICD (age 40 ± 10 years) and a group of 35 ICD-patients of older age without ToF (age 72.0 ± 8 years). This last control group was chosen to represent the “older general ICD population” with acquired heart disease seen at the out-patient clinic. Psychosocial functioning encompassed daily functioning, subjective health status, quality of life, anxiety, depression, coping and social support. Results ToF-patients with ICD showed diminished psychosocial functioning in comparison to ToF-patients without ICD. This was reflected by diminished subjectively perceived physical functioning ( p = 0.01), general health perception ( p