Abstract
BackgroundImages evoked immediately before the induction of anesthesia with the help of suggestions may influence dreaming during anesthesia.The aim of the study was to assess the incidence of evoked dreams and dream recalls by employing suggestions before induction of anesthesia while administering different general anesthetic combinations.MethodsThis is a single center, prospective randomized including 270 adult patients scheduled for maxillofacial surgical interventions. Patients were assigned to control, suggestion and dreamfilm groups according to the psychological method used. According to the anesthetic protocol there were also three subgroups: etomidate & sevoflurane, propofol & sevoflurane, propofol & propofol groups. Primary outcome measure was the incidence of postoperative dreams in the non-intervention group and in the three groups receiving different psychological interventions. Secondary endpoint was to test the effect of perioperative suggestions and dreamfilm-formation training on the occurrance of dreams and recallable dreams in different general anesthesiological techniques.ResultsDream incidence rates measured in the control group did not differ significantly (etomidate & sevoflurane: 40%, propofol & sevoflurane: 26%, propofol & propofol: 39%). A significant increase could be observed in the incidence rate of dreams between the control and suggestion groups in the propofol & sevoflurane (26%-52%) group (p = 0.023). There was a significant difference in the incidence of dreams between the control and dreamfilm subgroup in the propofol & sevoflurane (26% vs. 57%), and in the propofol & propofol group (39% vs.70%) (p = 0.010, and p = 0.009, respectively). Similar to this, there was a significant difference in dream incidence between the dreamfilm and the suggestion subgroups (44% vs. 70%) in the propofol & propofol group (p = 0.019). Propofol as an induction agent contributed most to dream formation and recalls (χ2-test p value: 0.005). The content of images and dreams evoked using suggestions showed great agreement using all three anesthetic protocols.ConclusionThe psychological method influenced dreaming during anesthesia. The increase of the incidence rate of dreams was dependent on the anesthetic agent used, especially the induction agent.The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. Identifier: NCT01839201.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2253-15-11) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Images evoked immediately before the induction of anesthesia with the help of suggestions may influence dreaming during anesthesia.The aim of the study was to assess the incidence of evoked dreams and dream recalls by employing suggestions before induction of anesthesia while administering different general anesthetic combinations
General anesthesia lasted for 85.5 ± 56.4 minutes and the bispectral index was 41.37, indicating proper level of hypnosis
In the present study we found that sponaneous dreams may be observed in approximately one third of patients undergoing general anesthesia, independent of the anesthetic method
Summary
Images evoked immediately before the induction of anesthesia with the help of suggestions may influence dreaming during anesthesia.The aim of the study was to assess the incidence of evoked dreams and dream recalls by employing suggestions before induction of anesthesia while administering different general anesthetic combinations. Used hypnosis and suggestions may be employed, in addition to local, or general anesthesia as complementer techniques for anxiolysis, sedation, relaxation, pain alleviation, and amnesia [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Unpleasant perioperative dreams or dream recalls may lead to decreased patient satisfaction related to the surgical/ anesthesiological event and should be reduced. It seems that imagination guided by suggestions before induction of anesthesia may modify dream recalls after recovery. The main goal of suggestive techniques in the perioperative phase is to turn the content of dreams toward a favourable direction that is considered a pleasant event by the patient. Little attention has been paid to the administration of perioperative psychological methods that may meet these requirements
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