Does a preoperative psychiatric interview and minimization of recovery room stress reduce the risk of postoperative psychotic reaction in open-heart surgery patients?
Preoperative psychiatric evaluation and reducing environmental stress in the recovery room may decrease the risk of postoperative psychosis in patients undergoing open-heart surgery.
The high risk of postoperative psychotic reaction occurring in patients who have undergone open-heart surgery has been attributed to several factors. The authors studied two of these—preoperative psychological state of the patient and environment in the recovery room—to determine their influence upon the incidence of postoperative reactions in two groups of heart-surgery patients. They conclude that a preoperative psychiatric interview, accompanied by individual recommendations for postoperative care, and minimization of the environmental stresses of the recovery room, lessen the risk of postoperative psychotic reaction among heart-surgery patients.
Lazarus et al. (Fri,) studied this question.