ABSTRACT
The history of the Type A behavior pattern is one of cyclic acceptance. A 20-year stream of largely confirmatory findings led earlier reviews (e.g., Review Panel, 1981) to conclude that the Type A pattern was an established risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). This confidence has waned in recent years under the weight of several notable failures to replicate the relationship between Type A behavior and CHD (e.g., Case, Heller, Case, & Moss, 1985; Cohen & Reed, 1985; Shekelle, Gale, & Norusis, 1985; Shekelle et al., 1985). Recent evidence indicating that modification of the Type A pattern can produce clinically significant reductions in cardiac recurrences among CHD patients, however, has done much to renew attention to this area (Friedman, et al., 1984, 1986).
