The effect of preoperative anxiety and depression on postoperative recovery quality

Abstract

Despite varying according to the disease and the patient, emotional reactions such as anxiety, depression, regression, anger, and grieving responses are observed in the preoperative period. High preoperative anxiety levels can lead to increased need for postoperative pain relief, prolonged hospital stay, inadequate patient satisfaction and insufficient patient recovery.In the present study, it was aimed to measure preoperative anxiety and depression levels and to determine their relationship with quality of recovery in patients scheduled to undergo elective surgery under general anesthesia. A total of 137 patients older than 18 years of age who were planned for elective surgery and who were to be operated under general anesthesia were included in the study. In the preoperative period, the patients were asked to fill out the demographic information form, Beck anxiety inventory and Beck depression inventory. They were also asked to complete the quality of awakening and the quality of recovery questionnaires at the postoperative first day and first month.It was detected that the anxiety and depression scores were high, whereas the recovery quality was low in females. The depression scores of the patients who were college graduates were found to be low. It was observed that the quality of awakening and the quality of recovery values at the postoperative first day and first month were significantly lower in the patients with higher depression and anxiety scores. According to these results, reducing the anxiety and depression of the patients in the preoperative period to a minimum is necessary to minimize the negative effects in the postoperative period such as inadequate patient recovery, increased need for painkillers, long hospital stay and insufficient patient satisfaction.