IRRATIONAL BELIEFS, SURGICAL CONDITION SEVERITY AND AGE AS PREDICTORS OF PREOPERATIVE ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

摘要

Studies show that people with a high level of irrational beliefs tend to develop emotionalproblems. The purpose of this study was to investigate if irrational beliefs (demandingness, awfulizing,frustration intolerance and self-downing), perceived self-efficacy, patient age and surgical conditionseverity are predictors of preoperative anxiety, depression and distress. A total of 40 patients admittedto the Surgery Unit of the County Clinical Hospital Cluj-Napoca, Romania, were evaluated betweenFebruary and June 2017. The results of the study show that age is the most important predictor,explaining 13.6% of the preoperative anxiety variance, 17.4 % of the preoperative depression varianceand 14.2% of the preoperative dysfunctional distress variance. Overall irrationality has explained 11%of preoperative anxiety variance, 11.1% of preoperative depression and 7.4% of preoperativedysfunctional distress variance, while surgical condition severity has proven to be a significant predictoronly for the preoperative dysfunctional distress, explaining 22.3% of this variance.