Abstract:

Anxiety is an unpleasant condition that includes thinking of tension, apprehension, uneasiness, and it is associated with high autonomic activity. Anxious patients need higher doses of anesthetic induction medications, and they tend to recover poorly. Our aim was to determine the predictors of preoperative anxiety in adult patients scheduled for surgery under general anesthesia. A total of 301 adult patients (217 women, 84 men; average age: 42.18±14.41) who were scheduled for various surgical procedures under general anesthesia. Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to assess the level of preoperative anxiety. All patients filled out STAI questionnaires that consisted of 40 items investigating the state and trait of anxiety. Responses to 40 questions were categorized into 2 separate groups: 23 questions were associated with the anxiety-positive scale, whereas 17 questions were termed as the anxiety-negative scale. Baseline descriptives including age, gender, body-mass index, smoking habits, comorbidities, and history of previous surgeries were recorded. Anxiety-positive and anxiety-negative scales of the STAI questionnaire were assessed to figure out the predictors of preoperative anxiety. Male patients (p<0.001) and employed or retired patients (p<0.001) were less anxious than their counterparts in the anxiety-negative scale of STAI. While women (p<0.001), unemployed patients (p=0.002), and smokers (p=0.036) seemed to be more anxious according to the results of anxiety-positive scale of STAI. Our results indicated that baseline characteristics and personal features of patients must be reviewed carefully during preoperative evaluation for general anesthesia. Further trials on larger series are necessary to test the validity of STAI in different populations. Revision of the number and content of the questions must be conducted carefully during these studies.

Keywords: