PRE-SURGERY STRESS LINKED
TO SIGNS OF SLOW WOUND HEALING

By Becky Ham, Science Writer
Health Behavior News Service

Stress related to the surgery itself, rather than general stress or anxiety, seem to be the culprit, say Keith J. Petrie, Ph.D., of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and colleagues in the September/October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Patients who were worried about the surgery beforehand were also more likely to say that their recovery was slow and painful, the researchers found.

“The study suggests that interventions designed to reduce pre-surgical stress, which have previously been found to shorten length of hospital stay and to reduce postoperative complications, pain and distress, may also improve wound repair,” Petrie says.

The researchers examined the levels of several repair proteins in wound fluid drained from a small group of hernia patients after their operations, including inflammatory proteins that recruit clean-up cells to the site and enzymes that chew up damaged tissue to make way for new growth.

Patients who said they were stressed before the operation had significantly lower levels of the inflammatory protein interleukin-1 in their wound fluid. Those who were specifically worried about the operation had lower levels of the enzyme MMP-9, the researchers found.

Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.
Interviews: Contact Keith Petrie at kj.petrie@auckland.ac.nz.
Psychosomatic Medicine: Contact Victoria White at (352) 376-1611, ext. 5300, or psychosomatic@medicine.ufl.edu. Online, visit www.psychosomaticmedicine.org.