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How to deal with Preoperative Anxiety

By Medical Expert Team

Nov 08 , 2020 | 1 min read

Anxiety is described as an unpleasant emotional state. Hospitalization and surgery evoke anxiety in most of the patients. It primarily has two main symptoms: physical and psychological.

Physical symptoms are heart palpitations, tremors, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and insomnia.

Psychological symptoms are tension, nervousness, fear, irritability, agitation, restlessness and concentration difficulties.

Preoperative anxiety has been known to prolong recovery process, increase susceptibility to infections, cause pains post surgery. While some amount of anxiety is palpable, high anxiety levels need to be addressed.

Factors associated with preoperative anxiety include:

- Fear of unknown
- Experienced symptoms
- Fear of pain
- Financial worries
- Fear of death

Coping processes with anxiety include:

Acquiring information about the operative procedure-

For Patients and attendants -The benefits of the operation, the rationale for treatment and the consequences of not having treatment is generally helpful.

The information of surgery such as the actual steps to the process, how long the operation would last, the location and intensity of the expected postoperative pain might help