O que fazer quando o cora？？o aperta? A dinamica conjugal pós-infarto

the objective of the present work was to investigate the dynamics of the conjugate relationships after the occurrence of an acut infarction of miocardial in one of the spouses, aiming to identify possible alterations in the interaction and in each spouse's role. six couples (30 to 53 yeaars marriage) were interviewed: 03 men and 03 women who had had heart attacks (occurrence among 1,5 to 8 years). two programs were used, in the individual interviews, one for the patient and other for the spouse. in these interviews we aimed to know about the personal iteractions, the after-infarct conjugate relationships and the gender differences. the content analysis of the interviews evidenced that it was prevailed in the conjugate relationships aspects, remember us to the traditional gender role, although the married dynamics has suffered some changes coming from the impact of the infarct, for example: the increase of sharing domestic tasks, men became more domestic, women began to participate in the financial administration, larger affective relactions among the couple. such considerations point out that the occurrence of the infarct was assessed positively by the women in function of the alterations of roles and negatively for the men due to the limitations and dependence caused by the disease.