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 "Return to Work af ter Bypass Surgery", organized by a cardiac surgeon, Dr. Walter.

InhaltsangabeFrom Clinical Experience to Tested Hypothesis: The Role of Psychosocial Factors in Coronary Heart Disease.- I. Psychosocial Factors and CHD.- Current and Past History of Type A Behavior Pattern.- Type A Behavior and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial.- The Predictive Power of the A/B Typology in Holland: Results of a 9.5-Year Follow-Up Study.- Type A and Other Psychosocial Factors in Relation to Coronary Heart Disease.- Is Neuroticism a Risk Factor for CAD? Is Type A a Measure of Neuroticism?.- Type A: Behavior or Trait?.- Type A as a Coping Career - Toward a Conceptual and Methodological Redefinition.- The Importance of the Type A Subcomponent Hostility for Myocardial Infarction at Young Age.- Hostility and Conflict as Antecedents of Arousal and Disease.- Psychological Stress and Sudden Cardiac Death.- II. Cardiovascular Psychophysiology.- Behavioral Correlates of Cardiovascular Reactivity in School Children.- Familial Aspects of the Type A Behavior Pattern and Physiologic Reactivity to Stress.- Stress and Cigarette Smoking: Implications for Cardiovascular Risk.- Anger, Aerobics and Autonomic Reactivity.- Psychophysiological Responses to Mental Stress in Type A and Type B Subjects With and Without a Family History of Hypertension.- Vigilance Performance and Psychophysiologic Reactions of Type A and Vitally Exhausted Persons.- Psychophysiologic Testing of Cardiovascular Responses to Physiologic and Psychological Challenge: Analysis of Intraindividual Stability.- Psychobiological Markers of Stress in Surgeons and Anaesthetists.- New Dimensions in Studying Sympathetic Nervous System Responses to Stressors.- The Measurement of Continuous Finger Arterial Pressure Noninvasively in Stationary Subjects.- III. Pathophysiology.- Neural Mechanism in Human Cardiovascular Regulation.- Behavioral Influences on Neuroendocrines and Insulin Sensitivity as Precursors of Coronary Heart Disease.- Some Working Hypotheses on the Significance of Behaviorally Evoked Cardiovascular Reactivity to Pathophysiology.- Behavioral Aspects of Cardiovascular Reactivity in Essential Hypertension.- The Prognostic Significance of Exercise Induced Hypertension in Heart Infarction Patients.- IV. Animal Models.- Atherosclerosis, Social Dominance and Cardiovascular Reactivity.- Psychosocial Stress and Its Pathophysiological Effects in Tree Shrews (Tupaia belangeri).- Heart Rate of Tree Shrews and Its Persistent Modification by Social Contact.- Blood Pressure Regulation by Sodium Intake and Behavioral Stress.- Individual Differences in Blood Pressure Reactivity and Behavior of Male Rats.- A Peculiar Breathing Pattern and Consequent Blood Pressure Oscillation During Social Stress.- V. Prevention and Control.- Prevention Paradox in Coronary Heart Disease.- How Does Relaxation Training Reduce Blood Pressure in Primary Hypertension?.- Hypertension: Biobehavioral Influences and Their Implications for Treatment.- Biobehavioral Effects of Antihypertensive Monotherapy: Oxprenolol and Nitrendipine.- Type A, Social Context, and Adaptation to Serious Illness: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Role of the Family in Recovery from Myocardial Infarction.- Endurance Training and Its Importance in the Prevention of Degenerative Cardiovascular Diseases.