RESUMO
The patients with abdominal surgery usually have acute pain. It is important for a patient's quality of life and for good recovery after surgery to control the postoperative pain. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between emotional state of preoperative patients and postoperative pain. The participants in this study were the 100 patients receiving abdominal surgery who received Intravenous Patient Controlled Analgesia (IV-PCA) at the end of the operation. The data were collected using questionnaires and the period of the data collection was from March to August, 2001. The instruments used for this study were The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Developed by Spielberger (1972), The Center for Epidemeologic Studies-Depression (CESD) scale and Visual Analog scale (VAS). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation coefficient with the SPSS program. The results are as follows. 1.For general characteristics there were significant differences in the degree of trait anxiety according to gender (p= 0.0010), marital status (p=0.0122), religion (p=0.0040), education (p=0.0001), occupation (p=0.0002), monthly income (p=0.0001), diagnosis (p=0.0001), and operation title (p=0.0001). 2.For general characteristics there were significant differences in the degree of state anxiety according to gender (p= 0.0023), education (p=0.0073), monthly income (p=0.0001), diagnosis (p=0.0005), and operation title (p=0.0063). 3.For general characteristics there were significant differences in the degree of depression according to gender (p= 0.0073), occupation (p=0.0469), monthly income (p=0.0001), diagnosis (p=0.012), and operation title (p=0.0033). 4.For general characteristics there were significant differences in the degree of postoperative pain according to gender (p=0.0213), marital status (p=0.0082), education (p=0.0016), occupation (p=0.0128), monthly income (p=0.0008), diagnosis (p=0.0007), and operation title (p=0.0008). 5.The relationship between trait anxiety and postoperative pain revealed a significant positive correlation (r=0.51, p=0.0001), and the relationship between state anxiety and postoperative pain revealed a significant positive correlation (r=0.50, p=0.0001), and the relationship between Depression and pain revealed a significant positive correlation (r=0.49, p=0.0001).