Preoperative Anxiety Literature Review

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. THEORETICAL LITERATURE ON PREOPERATIVE ANXIETY

Preoperative anxiety is a challenging in preoperative care of patients awaiting elective surgery and it is widely accepted as an expected response. Anxiety can be explained as a reaction to stress or fear and elicits the autonomic physiological response that helps a person to fight or flight the danger(2).

Studies have shown that people react differently to anxiety-provoking situations and related this difference to trait anxiety that described as an established individual difference in anxiety proneness and how stressful situations are perceived have described trait anxiety as a relatively permanent personality characteristic that is not influenced by a

(2016, p. 707) Matthias and Samarasekera (2011 , p. 5). Furthermore some studies reported that types of anaesthetic technique are associated factors with preoperative anxiety. This was supported by study conducted by Bosc et al. (2015) in patients undergoing oculoplastic and strabismus surgery found that patients undergone surgery under general anaesthesia had higher anxiety levels than patients undergone surgery under local anaesthesia (P=0.002) . In addition some other studies reported that patients under general anesthesia are more anxious than patients under local anesthesia (Jawaid et al. 2007, p. 147; Mitchell 2013, p. 41; Maheshwari and Ismail 2015, p.

In this approach the patient is encouraged to express his or her feelings and psychological support and tailored information are provided to the patient and the patient’s questions are addressed in a calm, supportive and confident manner within an atmosphere of privacy, care, concern, with a nonjudgmental and respectful attitude. Support from family, friends, and health care providers and anxiolytic or antidepressant medications can help with relieving severe anxiety but the medications are associated with risks of potential side effects, dependence and