Patientenerwartungen optimieren: Beschreibung einer präoperativen Kurzintervention am Beispiel von Patienten vor einer Bypass-Operation

Background: Patients' expectations are considered to be important mechanisms in psychotherapeutic and medical treatments and play a crucial role in recovery. Therefore, a short preoperative psychological intervention targeting patients' expectations was developed to facilitate patients' recovery after heart surgery. This article describes the short psychological intervention (EXPECT) and reports patients' evaluation of the intervention. Patients and Methods: 124 heart surgery patients were randomized and assigned to 1 of 3 interventions: a) optimizing expectations, b) supportive therapy, or c) standard medical care only. The expectation intervention incorporated 2 sessions in person and 2 telephone calls to systematically optimize behavior-and treatment-related outcome expectations. Subsequently, patients evaluated the intervention using questionnaires. Mean scores were calculated. Results: Patients' satisfaction regarding both interventions was rated high to very high on average. Patients undergoing the expectation intervention felt better informed and expected a more positive recovery process compared to the supportive-therapy group. Most patients rated the interventions as being helpful and expected more positive outcomes due to the interventions, which was supported by the longitudinal study results. Preoperative psychological interventions might be a reasonable add-on in the treatment of heart surgery patients. Conclusions: Optimizing patients' behavior-and treatment-related outcome expectations prior to surgery can contribute to more positive treatment outcomes. Such psychological interventions are well accepted by patients and feasible for use in heart surgery settings. Fostering positive expectations and altering negative baseline expectations should be considered in both psychotherapy and treatment of heart surgery patients. (C) 2018 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg