Hostname: page-component-6587cd75c8-67gbf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-23T09:41:37.197Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anxiety in surgical patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Marie Johnston
Marie Johnston*
Affiliation:
Department of Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Marie Johnston, Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The natural course of anxiety before and after surgery was examined using the State– Trait Anxiety Inventory in 4 studies involving 136 surgical patients. The results suggested that high levels of anxiety were experienced before admission to hospital, between admission and surgery and following surgery, and were not restricted to the immediate pre-operative period. Only a small percentage of patients reached their maximum level of anxiety on the morning of surgery.

These results have implications for those planning interventions to alleviate anxiety associated with surgery and for those studying surgical stress as a model for other naturally occurring stresses.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1980 , pp. 145 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Auerbach, S. M. (1973). Trait-state anxiety and adjustment to surgery. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 40, 264–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, F. & Lazarus, R. (1973). Active coping processes, coping dispositions, and recovery from surgery. Psychosomatic Medicine 35, 375–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLong, R. (1970). Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Cited by Spielberger et al. (1973).Google Scholar
Janis, I. L. (1958). Psychological Stress. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Janis, I. L. (1971). Stress and Frustration. Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich: New York.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. E., Leventhal, H. & Dabbs, J. M. (1971). Contributions of emotional and instrumental response processes in adaptation to surgery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 20, 55–64CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnston, M. & Carpenter, L. (1980). Relationship between pre-operative anxiety and post operative state. Psychological Medicine 10 (in the press).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnston, M. & Hackman, A. (1977). Cross-validation and response sets in repeated use of questonnaires. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 16, 235–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langer, E., Janis, I. & Wolfer, J. (1975). Reduction of stress in surgical patients. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 11, 155–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leventhal, H. (1970). Findings and theory in the study of fear communications. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 5, 120–186.Google Scholar
Ley, P. (1977). Psychological studies of doctor–patient communication. In Contributions to Medical Psychology Vol. 1 (ed. Rachman, S.), pp. 9–42. Pergamon: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinez-Urrutia, A. (1975). Pain and anxiety in surgical patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 43, 437–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melamed, B. G. (1977). Psychological preparation for hospitalization. In Contributions to Medical Psychology, Vol. 1 (ed. Rachman, S.), pp. 43–74. Pergamon: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, D. W. (1977). Pre-operative anaesthetic visit. Letter to British Medical Journal ii, 1217–1218.Google Scholar
Sime, M. (1976). Relationship of pre-operative fear, type of coping, and information received about surgery to recovery from surgery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34, 716–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spielberger, C. D. (1972). Anxiety as an emotional state. In Anxiety: Current Trends in Theory and Research Vol. 1 (ed. Spielberger, C. D.), pp. 24–49. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D.. Gorsuch, R. L. & Lushene, R. E. (1970). Manual for the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Consulting Psychologists Press: Palo Alto, Ca.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. D., Auerbach, S. M., Wadsworth, A. P., Dunn, T. M. & Taulbec, E. S. (1973). Emotional reactions to surgery. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 40, 33–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, B., Williams, J. G. L. & Jones, J. R. (1972). The measurement and control of pre-operative anxiety.Paper presented at the 12th Annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research:Boston,November 1972.Google Scholar