Abstract
Background. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of temperature on a variety of indices of psychologic adjustment and quality of life. Methods. A total of 209 patients randomly received normothermic (warm) or hypothermic (cold) conditions during coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS), and a number of physical, social, and psychologic measures were assessed before as well as 6 weeks and 6 months after CABS. Results. Repeated measures analyses of covariance revealed significant temperature group main effects for anxiety ( p = 0.008) and depression ( p = 0.039), with the normothermic group obtaining lower anxiety and depression levels than the hypothermic group at both 6 weeks and 6 months after surgery. Additionally, among patients who entered the study with higher depression levels, those in the hypothermic group tended to have higher depression scores at follow-up compared with patients in the normothermic condition ( p = 0.012). No temperature group differences were observed on other quality of life indices. Conclusions. The results of the present study indicate that hypothermic conditions during CABS are associated with higher levels of emotional distress after CABS than normothermic conditions, particularly for patients with greater stress to begin with.
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