Associations between postoperative analgesic consumption and distress tolerance, anxiety, depression, and pain...

Patients' postoperative treatment might be affected by their psychological state. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of anxiety, coping ability (stress tolerance), depression, and pain catastrophizing on analgesic consumption in patients scheduled for sleeve gastrectomy.

This prospective observational study consisted of 72 patients. The Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) were completed in the preoperative period. In the postoperative period, pain intensity, as measured with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and morphine consumption (mg) were evaluated after 2, 6, 8, and 24 hours. Total morphine consumption was recorded.

The results revealed a strong negative correlation between distress tolerance and postoperative total morphine consumption (r = -0.702, p < 0.001). There was a strong positive correlation between total morphine consumption and pain catastrophizing (r = 0.801, p < 0.001). A moderate positive correlation was observed between total morphine consumption and anxiety and between total morphine consumption and depression (r = 0.511, p < 0.001; r = 0.556, p < 0.001, respectively). Linear regression revealed that distress tolerance, anxiety, depression, and pain catastrophizing are predictors of postoperative morphine consumption (β = 0.597, p < 0.001; β = 0.207, p = 0.036; β = 0.140, p = 0.208; β = 0.624, p < 0.001, respectively).

Distress tolerance, anxiety, depression, and pain catastrophizing can be predictive of postoperative analgesic consumption. In the estimation of postoperative analgesic consumption, distress tolerance, as well as anxiety, depression, and pain catastrophizing, were found to be important predictors.