Preoperative patient training
It is considered useful to inform patients sufficiently before surgery about the events after surgery. In this way, the patient can above all deal with the forthcoming course of pain and recovery and actively contribute to the healing process. The patient is thus comprehensively trained in the somatic (physical) as well as psychological possibilities for pain relief and instructed in how to apply them.
Placebo effect
Another important aspect of postoperative pain management is the use of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is any positive physical and psychological change that is not due to an effective treatment, such as a drug, but to a psychological context. This means that a patient experiences an improvement in pain without having taken an effective medication.
This is achieved, for example, by a patient taking a dummy drug in the knowledge that it contains an effective painkiller. This awareness alone can relieve the pain.However, the placebo effect is only used additively for active pain therapy. It can optimize the effect of the analgesic drug, but cannot replace it.
The opposite of the placebo effect is the nocebo effect. The nocebo effect refers to all negative physical and psychological reactions that are not directly attributable to the treatment or its side effects. This effect should be avoided in postoperative pain therapy.
Psychological measures of postoperative pain therapy
Pain can be relieved not only by analgesic medication, but also by psychological procedures and methods. These are increasingly used in modern postoperative pain therapy. These include behavioral therapeutic procedures such as distraction strategies or cognitive reassessment.
Other psychological procedures that have a pain-relieving effect are also being used. These include hypnosis, relaxation exercises and imagination. The psychological intervention should partly start before the operation. It is advisable to train patients with chronic pain and/or psychological problems before the operation in how to deal with pain and to provide psychological pre-treatment in order to achieve a milder post-operative course of pain.
