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Abstract There is now substantial agreement that psychological preparation for surgery is beneficial to patients. It is important, however, to establish which benefits can be achieved by psychological preparation and if all forms of preparation are equally effective. The results of randomized controlled trials of psychological methods of preparing adult patients for surgery were analyzed in terms of eight outputs (negative affect, pain, pain medication, length of stay, behavioral and clinical indices of recovery, physiological indices, and satisfaction). In order to reduce publication bias, published as well as unpublished studies were included in the meta-analysis. It was concluded that significant benefits can be obtained on all of the major outcome variables that have been explored. Procedural information and behavioral instructions show the most ubiquitous effects in improving measures of postoperative recovery. The results have implications for the improvement of patient care in surgical units.
Johnston et al. (Fri,) studied this question.