The AHA study found that there are at least three distinct types of anger expression: constructive anger, destructive anger, and anger justification. Constructive anger is associated with a decreased risk of 10-year incident CHD in men, while destructive anger justification is associated with an increased risk of 10-year incident CHD in both men and women.
These findings suggest that the conflicting results of previous studies may be due to differences in measures of anger expression. The AHA study hypothesized that the distinct types of anger expression may have different effects on CHD risk, and that the conflicting findings may be a result of how anger expression was measured in previous studies.