The Comparison of the Effectiveness of Seligman, Lyubomirsky and Fordyce Happiness Training Programs in Cardiac Patients: A psychoneuroimmunological Assessment

The present study examined and compared the effectiveness of three happiness interventions on risk biomarkers and psychological variables in coronary patients. In this study 68 coronary patients were assigned randomly to 4 groups of 17 patients, in three happiness intervention groups including Seligman, Lyubomirsky and Fordyce and a control group. The intervention groups completed 6 weeks of happiness training, and pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up measurements were carried out. Instruments were included assay kits for salivary cortisol, plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-1, IL-6, and, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Oxford Happiness Inventory, Diner Satisfaction with Living Scale, and Snyder Dispositional Hope Scale. The results have shown that there was a strong trend for Seligman authentic happiness to induce positive changes in related psychoneuroimmunological biomarkers especially for the improvement of the cortisol awakening response’s flexibility and reduction of the level of hs-CRP. In addition the results indicated that all of three interventions types have had positive and significant effects on the psychological variables. The results suggest that authentic happiness may have positive influences on regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning and reduction of inflammatory markers in coronary patients.