摘要Implantable cardioverter defibrillators(ICDs)represent an established therapeutic strategy for the prevention of sudden cardiac death and reduction of mortality in high-risk patients,while ICDs with cardiac resynchronization therapy defibri-llators improve morbidity,quality of life,and mortality in eligible patients with heart failure who are on optimal medical therapy.However,these devices may adversely affect the patients'psychological status after the delivery of shock therapies or even beca-use of the fear of impending therapy.On the other hand,the potential of effective treatment of malignant arrhythmias may pro-vide a'safety'sensation in most treated patients without significant impairment in the quality of life during periods of clinical sta-bility.During the past few years,an increasing number of reports have investigated psychological distress,including depression and anxiety status in ICD/cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator recipients.However,heterogeneous results have been reported while data on the variation of these psychological indexes over time in implanted patients are quite limited.Several intr-insic and extrinsic factors affect the psychological status of these patients while variations of these disturbances in specific popul-ations are evident.Factors that seem to be associated with a greater risk for depression and anxiety in this setting include female ge-nder,younger age,and device shock therapies.Moreover,depression and anxiety may have an adverse impact on patients'clini-cal outcomes exacerbating heart failure and increasing the arrhythmic risk.In this brief review article,we provide a concise and cri-tical overview of the current literature on this topic,and we also discuss unresolved and conflicting issues delineating future perspec-tives.