Biological and Psychological Factors in Cardiovascular Disease

An opening address should ask the right questions, which we expect to answer during the coming years. A good opening address should formu- late hypotheses for falsification during the conference or in the near fu- ture. Mter Dr. Groen's excellent lecture yesterday, I feel better about my task, because I feel I am not alone in asking the ten questions in my ab- stract. It is an honor for me to give this short paper largely based on my expe- riences during 15 years as medical director of a rehabilitation center in Ba- varia, as a teacher at two medical schools in Munich and Innsbruck, and as an old-fashioned holistic cardiologist. However, it also is a difficult task for me because the subject of this conference concerning biobehavioral factors in coronary heart disease is controversial, not only in the medical society, but in my own mind as well. When I organized one of the first conferences on stress and coronary heart disease in West Germany in 1976, followed by conferences in 1979 and 1980, the semantic problems between physicians and psychologists were very significant. However, communication has improved in this area during the last decade. The most encouraging event in this field was a sym- posium in May 1984 in Rotenburg/Fulda on the topic "e;Return to Work af- ter Bypass Surgery"e;, organized by a cardiac surgeon, Dr. Walter.