Guided Imagery Effects on Pain, Anxiety, and Sleep for Lumbar Discectomy Patients

Purpose

Pain, sleep problems, and anxiety due to all these are common problems in patients who have had herniated disk surgery. This study aims to analyze the effect of the guided imagery technique on the patients' pain, anxiety, and sleep levels before and after a lumbar disk herniation (LDH) operation.

Design

This study was conducted as a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial.

Methods

The research was conducted with 60 patients who underwent LDH surgery and met the inclusion criteria. Patients were divided into experimental and control groups according to a computer-generated randomization list. The treatment group (n = 31) applied guided imagery techniques twice, once in the preoperative and postoperative periods. The control group (n = 29) was provided with routine care. “Introductory Information Form,” “Surgery-Specific Anxiety Scale,” “Richard-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire,” and “Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)” were used. The data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test, paired sample t test, independent sample t test, Pearson chi-square exact test, and repeated measures two-way analysis of variance. In all results, P < .05 was considered statistically significant.

Findings

The preoperative anxiety level of the treatment group was lower compared to the anxiety level of the control group (P < .05). The sleep score of the treatment group in the preoperative period was higher than the sleep score of the control group (P < .05). The sleep score of the treatment group in the postoperative period was found to be higher than the sleep score of the control group (P < .05). The pain average of the treatment group in the postoperative period was lower than the pain average of the control group (P < .05).

Conclusions

Our study results revealed that guided imagery applied in the preoperative and postoperative periods effectively decreased pain and anxiety levels and increased the sleep quality of patients with LDH.