Anxiety and postoperative pain

The authors observed the pre-operative level of anxiety in a group 50 patients awaiting surgery and then the level of post-operative pain. The Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale questionnaire was administered to monitor the state of anxiety, while the numerical analogue scale was used to quantify the post-operative pain. This study revealed the presence of a low-to-moderate level of anxiety in all patients observed as well as the presence, in a large number of patients, of post-operative pain, despite the analgesic therapy already provided.