Coronary heart disease and deaths resulting from it are rising and is the most important factor for mortality and disability in Iran. The role of positive psychological factors as mediators in the disease course and recovery process is debatable. The aim of this study is to evaluate particular positive psychopathological factors in relation to certain indicators of recovery after heart surgery. Therefore, in a correlational descriptive study, 43 patients, referred for heart surgery to Jamaran Heart Center in Tehran, were selected through availability sampling method and assessed for forgiveness, dysfunctional attitudes, depression, anxiety, stress, and cardiac recovery index prior to, after, and three month following heart surgery. Regression analysis revealed correlation between dysfunctional attitude and increase in depression, increase in forgiveness and decrease in depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, from the three subscales of forgiveness, resentment control with all three variables of depression, anxiety, and stress; and the variable of realistic understanding only with anxiety showed a significant inverse relationship. Additionally, forgiveness and dysfunctional attitudes can predict after surgery fever, pain, and shortness of breath through mediation of depression, anxiety, and stress scores. It seems that psychological factors are effective on recovery process of heart diseases from which forgiveness is the influencing factor on psychological health and in this way, psychological health, based on indicators of stress, anxiety, and depression, affect recovery process of patients with hearth diseases.
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