Evaluation and Descriptive Study of Pre- and Postoperative Anxiety and Depression in General Surgery (Prospective Study over 6 Months)

Introduction: Hospitalization is a common experience today. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2012, the global volume of surgical procedures performed was estimated at 312.9 million operations. Addition to the physical consequences of surgery, patients may also experience anxiety and depression. The primary objective of our study is to assess pre- and postoperative anxiety and depression on general surgery wards and to identify possible associations between the anxiety and depression component and the characteristics of the population.

Materiels and Methods: This is a prospective study following 130 patients of the general surgery department of the Ibn Rochd center of Casablanca over a 6 months period from January 2017 to June 2017.

Results and Discussion: The average age of our patients was 52.88 +/- 14.22 years with a female predominance of 60.8% against 39.2% male, that is to say a sex-ratio of 0.6. According to the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, the majority of our patients were more anxious preoperatively than postoperatively, 48.5% of patients had moderate to severe anxiety preoperatively and 46.2 had mild anxiety postoperatively. According to the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS), a large proportion of patients (75.4%) were anxious about surgery and anesthesia and 24.6% were non-anxious, 50.8% had an avid desire to have necessary information related to the surgery they were going to undergo and the course of the anesthesia, 23.3% had a moderate desire and 16.9% of patients refused to have information. Regarding depression, the majority of patients were depressed preoperatively compared to postoperatively, according to HAM-D, 59.2% of patients had a depressive disorder preoperatively and 49.2% were depressed postoperatively.

Conclusion: Anxiety and depression had a high prevalence in the general surgery department which is due to several factors such as age, diagnosis, surgical history, length of hospitalization, etc. This requires ongoing assessment and management because of the direct impact of this component on patient recovery.