Abstract

Anxiety is an unpleasant sense associated with fear, unease and nervousness. Researchers report a significant correlation between a patient's level of preoperative anxiety, anesthetic consumption and postoperative pain. Pain in the postoperative period leads to increased narcotic consumption and its subsequent side effects. Other postoperative consequences of preoperative anxiety include nausea, vomiting, cardiovascular disturbances such as tachycardia and hypertension, and increased the risk of infection. It is also reported that the recovery period and length of hospital stay are extended in patients with increased levels of preoperative anxiety.

Practitioners engage in pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures for the treatment of preoperative anxiety.Premedication with midazolam is the most widely used for the treatment of anxiety before general anesthesia, but can lead to undesirable side effects, including oversedation, hypotension, and respiratory depression. These severe negative consequences have encouraged practitioners to look to other options for the treatment of anxiety. There are a wide variety of alternative treatments for preoperative anxiety including cognitive behavioral therapy, music therapy, audiovisual programs, meditation, virtual reality, acupuncture, aromatherapy and melatonin.

Abigail Brady

Author Details

Abigail Brady, BSN

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Lead Author Affiliation

Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Preoperative Anxiety, Benzodiazepines, Non-Pharmacological Anxiolysis

Advisor

Herbinger, Lisa

Degree

Doctoral-Other

Degree Grantor

Samford University

Degree Year

2023

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

Date of Issue

2023-02-13

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