Abstract
Introduction:
Preoperative medications have been credited several advantages such as reduce amount of anesthesia, anxiolysis and fast onset of sedation. the utilization of medication for the management of preoperative anxiety in adults and children has been studied by several studies, however, the evidence is not well-established. This review aimed to summarize the pharmacological interventions used to control of preoperative anxiety.
Methods:
The electronic search in MEDLINE and EMBASE was conducted using a combination of keywords. The search resulted in 73 studies, which were screened for eligibility criteria such as clinical trial design, English language, and human studies. After exclusion of ineligible, duplicated and review studies, the full text of the eligible studies were screened and the data were extracted.
Results:
The search of the literature, after exclusion of ineligible studies, revealed 14 studies met the inclusion criteria. Included studies aimed to investigate, from randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the pharmacological interventions for control of preoperative anxiety. Regarding the main outcome which is the reduction of preoperative analgesia reported in many included studies
Conclusions:
Benzodiazepines remain the medication of choice for the treatment of preoperative anxiety. However, many cautions should be taken in using preoperative medications among specific groups of patients such as hypersensitive reaction or physical dependence on the prescription. A straight on correlation regarding benzodiazepines is justified.