Can bypass surgery change a personality?
Heart surgery -- or even receiving a diagnosis of heart disease -- can change someone's personality, pretty much like any psychological trauma. Sometimes there can be changes in the brain related to the surgery that cause personality changes, but more often it's just the shock of recognizing that you have a serious condition.
Depression may also be a factor. Depression is fairly common following heart surgery or heart attacks, when patients feel scared or helpless. Counseling or support groups may help him to come to terms with his condition.
In any case, your father-in-law should discuss his change in outlook with his physician, because it's also possible that his mood may be a side effect of one of his medications.
I have seen this with my grandfather as well. There are lots of things that can factor into the emotional changes that are separate from actual surgery itself.
In my grandfather's situation, a lot of it appears to be fear. The realization of his dangerous condition and the brevity remaining in his life has caused him to turn very inward. He won't do anything or go anywhere and generally just gets easily angered.
There are apparently some real anger-type side effects with heart bypass too. There is an interesting article on Bill Clinton regarding this...
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2008other/080412clinton.htm
I hope this helps and that your step father is doing better now, you may also want to take a look at heartbypass.org for more information on heart bypass surgery in general. It may be in his best interest to go ahead and start seeing a therapist - however I know that there is a lot of resistance to this kind of thing.
I had a cabgx4 4 years ago. Mine was a little different in that I had a heart attack and they opened me up immediately. Any way I digress. I was fine for the first year. And then I gradually started to to resent my family. (All except my daughter) I felt that they were a bunch of money grubbing blood suckers and I was fed up with it. I bought a 32" sailboat and then bought a house on the water to keep it at. My point is that I believe that I spoke with God. I've seen mortality for what it is. It's natural. we've completed our work here and it's time to rest. I no longer fear death. I no longer have any patience for the ungrateful or the unfeeling. Iknow they mean well, but it's their agenda that they are selling. I ain't buying. Just cut us a little slack. Talk to us. Find out how we feel and what we want. We're the one on the short string. It didn't matter that I didn't know how to sail, I learned. Now I'm wasting time in style.
I've been doing a lot of research on this for something I'm writing and it seems pretty clear to me that this phenomenon is not just "the emotional toll of a life-threatening illness and surgery." There appears to be a definite physiological situation in these patients with severe personality changes. Anger, mood swings, irritability, irrational behavior, lashing out -- friendly people turn mean, calm people turn angry, rational people suddenly do crazy things. I don't know whether it's "pump head" or some other mechanism, but this is not just people dealing with tough situation and getting emotional. Due to the high number of these surgeries performed on the population, there needs to be some serious research into this phenomenon.
i agree that this is a very definite problem and there should be more research into the personality changes after heart surgery
I had heard bypass 1 1/2 years ago. I have experienced a definite change in my personality. I was an easy going person and now I am irritable, angry and lash out. I thought perhaps having two pints of blood transfused this might have been the culprit, or that I was just crazy. This does make me feel better, but is there anything that can help?
I had a 4-way CABG at the age of 32 back in 92' which of course shocked me when I was initially told I needed it as the Angiogram showed I had 12 different blockages in 4 of the main vessels with the lowest level at 70% and the highest at 95%.
Prior to having this surgery, I was under great duress and CHRONIC Stress due to someone playing games in my life and disrupting it at a level that would be considered traumatic very easily. I can tell you that chronic stress does cause or accelerate Heart Disease as our bodies are only designed for Acute Stress such when a Deer runs out in front of us, or if a person pops a balloon behind our head without knowing it. However; dealing with a level of constant stress on our mind keeps our hearts and every organ at a level of hyper-stress where little to no relief is felt. An acute stress event allows our body to return back to a comfortable and calm state whereas a the chronic stress gets little to no relief. This same stress continued after I healed after my CABG until it was resolved months after my surgery, but by then, the damage had been done.
Otherwise, prior to my surgery and the event where this third person created a mess of painful issues in my life I needed to fight and deal with, I was otherwise in good shape, and had been a regular runner/walker of 3 or more miles about 4 times a week and ate well.
Back then, (I don't know if it has changed) I was told the Heart/Lung machine pumps the blood in reverse flow to what our body is used to. However; my level of anger was for the person that affected me with their attempted character asassination of me prior and after my surgery and I can't say the surgery caused it except the fact that this person drove me and my body to break-down to a level where I need such a radical surgery at an awful young age. Also, there are hardly any people that has such a surgery at this age, and I felt alone and in an arena where I could not relate with others my age as they had not had such an invasive surgery.
I would say the Heart Attack I had 9 years later at age 41 affected me more as far as being changed by the MI that I have noticed several subtle and a bit more profound changes in my character, personality, and, I have lost much of the zeal and desire to do anything of interest I had before in which I coded 6 times in the E.R. and I wonder if and what level of lack of blood flow my brain experienced during my Heart Attack. Then, add on top of this that my Father dies of a single Heart Attack at age 41 which is the same age I was when I had mine. Not to mention I am his only son and named after him as the III generation as my Grandfather was named the same. This I know affected me psychologically and brought a level of doom to me, but, I was glad I survived my Heart Attack. At least now at 51 y/o, I have the comfort of knowing I "did" out-live my Father as this caused me great greif when I was younger as to the hereditary aspect of Heart DIsease that runs on both sides of my family.
I understand that this type of surgery can have a major and sometimes negative effect on the mental health of the patient. However, when my mother had triple bypass surgery at the age of 70, she eventually had more energy and "spunk" than she had for many years. Her recovery was long and difficult, but after she finished her re-hab (which included quite a bit of supervised aerobic activities) she felt better than she had in years. Fortunately she had no heart damage and only had to continue taking the blood pressure meds she had been on before the bypass. She felt it was the exercise and her socializing with other heart patients during her rehab that pulled her out of any "funk" that she may have been in after the surgery. She made new friends and had a built in support group by going to all of her re-hab sessions and completing them as suggested by her doctors. My parents were living in an active adult community at the time, and many of the residents had similar experiences that they could share with her. I believe it was the support she received from friends, family, and the medical community that helped her become a healthier person than she was before the surgery. All I can say to those who have parents who are suffering through depression after surgery is to continue to support them and make sure that they get as much help and exercise as is possible. Socializing with others of a similar age with similar experiences is also important, as it is for anybody.
Oh yes, yes, very sadly YES heart bypass surgery can and does change personality! I married the kindest, nicest, most loving man I've ever known and ever since his CABG surgery over 7 years ago, he has changed into the angriest, cruelest person I've ever had the displeasure of knowing-after more than 20 happy years of marriage! "Pumphead" is a sad, terrible reality and it has ruined our lives! I'm not talking about depression, this is a viciously mean, angry man now! This change started in him within 3 weeks of his surgery, and it shocks and horrifies me to this day. I suppose it might be possible to mitigate the effects of the brain damage done to these patients with a combo of drugs and therapy, but I'm not sure-and the patient would have to agree to try. In our case, he doesn't feel that there is anything wrong with him. But there is and I'm not the only one who's noticed-but he takes most of his anger out on me. He hates me now-and we had been a very happily married couple! Trust me-this procedure is ruining lives!!
I have been searching for answers to this disturbing question: Why has my personality changed since my CABG in 3-10? I had the surgery for a rare congenital anomoly that would have killed me had I not had the surgery. I used to be vibrant and involved and energetic. Now I don't really care about much and have a "whatever" attitude. I am very quiet and don't feel like talking and/or being with people, even friends. What has happened to me? Where is the old me? I've talked with my cardiologist and surgeon about this but they have dismissed me and tell me that "pump head" really does not happen much if at all. I told them I disagree completely--something has made me a different person. I even look different....help.
Dear mama04---I would love to email with you and talk more about your situation--if u r interested in doing that, give me your email address & we will discuss it! Janbp
Hi, Janbp: Yes, it's [email removed]. Thanks.
