The more a patient fears pain from a surgical procedure, the more likely they are to report increased pain and nonopioid medication use after surgery, according to the findings of a recent study.
“The fear of pain increased patients’ postoperative pain levels and thus the amount of analgesic consumption,” study researchers said. “Therefore, patients’ fear of pain should be determined in the preoperative period and pain management practices should be initiated in this period. As a matter of fact, effective pain management will positively affect patient outcomes by reducing the amount of analgesic consumption.”
The study was conducted in an academic hospital’s general surgery department from Aug. 15, 2021 to Jan. 15, 2022 (Pain Manag Nurs 2023;S1524-9042[23]00112-1. doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2023.04.015). Among the 532 patients (mean age, 48.19 years; 56.8% female), there were various surgeries planned, but a large proportion of patients underwent colorectal surgery (30.6%). All patients completed the Fear of Pain Questionnaire-III before their procedure.
Among study participants, 86.1% expected to experience postoperative pain and 70% reported moderate to severe postoperative pain. There was a significant positive correlation between patients’ pain levels within zero to eight hours after surgery and their mean scores on the fear of severe and minor pain surveys.
Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between patients’ mean scores on the total Fear of Pain scale and the amount of diclofenac sodium (a nonopioid analgesic) consumed after surgery (P<0.05).
“Determination of fear of pain and provision of effective pain management will prevent unnecessary use of analgesics and protect patients from analgesia-related side effects,” the researchers concluded.
By Myles Starr