Undergoing Psychological Assessments For Spinal Stimulation Surgery

By Joseph Cooper


Part of the Hippocratic oath that doctors take involves doing no harm to patients. To ensure they do not do any kind of harm to their clients, they are required to perform thorough examinations to determine people's overall readiness for certain procedures. In particular, surgeons are often obligated to probe the mindset of patients who come to them for help. By performing extensive psychological assessments for spinal stimulation surgery, surgeons can determine how ready people are to undergo these procedures.

You can actually expect to be asked a number of questions during the process of probing your mindset and readiness for the upcoming procedure. In particular, your care team will want to understand whether or not you are anxious or fearful about what lies ahead of you. You might be one of the many patients who experience extreme anxiety at the thought of being put under general sedation. You may fear the loss of control or even not waking up after the operation has come to an end.

Some of your anxieties may also stem from not knowing who will be in the room with you while you are asleep. You know your surgeon and nurses will be in there. However, there could be dozens of others coming and going during the procedure. The idea of people you do not know seeing you in a vulnerable state might worry you.

Another part of the examination will determine your readiness to recuperate on your own at home. Even if you stay in the hospital for a few day afterwards, you will be sent home at some point to recover on your own. Your care team will need to comprehend your willingness to follow the post-care instructions you will be given. Your ability and willingness to do what your doctors tell you will play into how well you recover.

At the same time, the examination will delve into how realistic people are about what will actually happen to them during and after the operation. For some people, the hope of being totally cured is too tempting to resist. They have to be corrected and told the likelihood of what will occur once they are sent home.

This disclosure reveals to the team how realistic you are about your own future once the operation is finished. If you have unreal hopes, the surgeon will probably correct you and tell you what is more likely to happen. Depending on how well you accept this new information, the team can then determine how ready you are on which to be operated.

Likewise, depending on your mental readiness, the team in charge of your care may decide that you would do well to take certain medications to keep you calm and focused. Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicines might become a regimented aspect of your care. They will allay your worries and also put you in the right mindset.

Going through any kind of surgery requires most patients go to through a psychological evaluation first. This evaluation determines their readiness for what lies ahead. It also corrects any fallacies to which the patient clings. This assessment is typically performed several days or weeks prior to the actual appointment that is scheduled for the operation.




About the Author: