Guided imagery as a coping strategy for perioperative patients

Patients who undergo surgery usually experience fear and apprehension about their surgical procedures. Guided imagery is a simple, low-cost therapeutic tool that can help counteract surgical patients' fear and anxiety. The authors randomly assigned 130 patients undergoing elective colorectal surgical procedures into two groups. Members of one group received routine perioperative care. Members of the other group listened to guided imagery tapes for three days before their surgical procedures, during anesthesia induction, intraoperatively, in the postanesthesia care unit, and for six days after surgery. The authors measured patients' anxiety levels, pain perceptions, and narcotic medication requirements. The patients in the guided imagery group experienced considerably less preoperative and postoperative anxiety and pain, and they required almost 50% less narcotic medications after their surgical procedures than patients in the control group.