The Use of Brief Mindfulness Interventions in the Context of Perioperative Care.
Study Goal
The researchers aimed to synthesize and categorize the literature on the use of brief mindfulness interventions for patients and physicians in perioperative care.
Results Summary
Brief mindfulness interventions (3-29 min per session, up to 100 min per week for 4 weeks) showed potential to impact health-related outcomes like mental health, anxiety, and pain perception, though most studies had small sample sizes and inconclusive results.
Population
Patients undergoing various surgical procedures (e.g., joint arthroplasty, breast biopsy, cardiac surgery) and one study on surgeons.
Effective Dosage
Sessions lasting 30 min or less per occasion, total practice not exceeding 100 min per week.
Duration
Up to 4 weeks.
Interactions
None mentioned.
| Intervention | Direction | Endpoint | Population | Dosage | Impact | Claim # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
brief mindfulness interventions | neutral | various health-related outcomes, including mental health outcomes, anxiety, and pain perception | patients and physicians across the spectrum of perioperative care | - | were noted to impact | #1 |
mindfulness interventions | neutral | well-being and surgical outcomes broadly construed | - | - | may be a scalable, low-cost, time-limited intervention that has the potential to optimize | #2 |
The purpose of this review was to synthesize and categorize the literature on the use of brief mindfulness interventions for both patients and physicians across the spectrum of perioperative care. Web-based discovery services and discipline-specific databases were queried. Brief mindfulness interventions were defined as sessions lasting 30 min or less on any single occasion, with a total practice accumulation not exceeding 100 min per week, and a duration of up to 4 weeks. Study screening and data extraction were facilitated through the Covidence software platform. After screening 1047 potential studies, 201 articles were identified based on initial abstract and title screening; 10 studies ultimately met inclusion criteria. All ten studies were published between 2019 and 2023; most (n = 9) reports focused on patients (total joint arthroplasty, n = 3; stereotactic breast biopsy, n = 2; minimally invasive foregut surgery, n = 1; septorhinoplasty, n = 1; cardiac surgery, n = 1; and other/multiple procedures, n = 1); one studied investigated mindfulness interventions among surgeons. The duration of the interventions varied (3 min to 29 min). The most common issue that the mindfulness intervention aimed to address was pain (n = 6), followed by narcotic use (n = 3), anxiety (n = 2), delirium (n = 1), or patient satisfaction (n = 1). While most studies included a small sample size and had inconclusive results, brief mindfulness interventions were noted to impact various health-related outcomes, including mental health outcomes, anxiety, and pain perception. Mindfulness interventions may be a scalable, low-cost, time-limited intervention that has the potential to optimize well-being and surgical outcomes broadly construed.