Does psychological preparation improve postoperative pain, behavioural recovery, negative affect, and length of stay in adults undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia?
While psychological preparation may improve postoperative pain and recovery, the current evidence is of low quality and insufficient to draw firm conclusions.
The evidence suggested that psychological preparation may be beneficial for the outcomes postoperative pain, behavioural recovery, negative affect and length of stay, and is unlikely to be harmful. However, at present, the strength of evidence is insufficient to reach firm conclusions on the role of psychological preparation for surgery. Further analyses are needed to explore the heterogeneity in the data, to identify more specifically when intervention techniques are of benefit. As the current evidence quality is low or very low, there is a need for well-conducted and clearly reported research.
Powell et al. (2016) studied this question.