A new, computerized, mental health assessment tool may allow doctors to quickly identify children experiencing anxiety or depression before surgery, suggests new research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY ® 2024 annual meeting. In the small, single-center study, researchers found more than half of the children screened had anxiety before having surgery and more than one-third had depression. The use of the KCAT ® tool in pediatric patients in the preoperative setting is very feasible and the results of our pilot study show a substantial prevalence of these mental health conditions in this surgical population.
Anxiety and depression are caused by many factors. Many kids are anxious before having surgery and the stress of undergoing the actual procedure can accentuate it." Elizabeth Pealy, M.
D., lead author of the study and assistant professor of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago Medicine The overall incidence and prevalence of anxiety and depression in children in the United States has dramatically increased in recent years. It is difficult for pediatric anesthesiologists to determine if patients have undiagnosed anxiety or depression, or severe preoperative anxiety, prior to the surgery.
Increased anxiety can contribute to the child being uncooperative during the anesthetic induction, as well as prolonged recovery, increased postoperative pain and delirium, and decreased patient satisfaction. With thousands of children undergoing surgery every year, ha.
