Your Expectations Can Improve Your Pain

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Your Expectations Can Improve Your Pain

Arthritis patients who are optimistic that an upcoming hip or knee

replacement operation is going to remedy their pain are actually more likely

to get better relief than patients with low expectations about what surgery

can do for them.

If you come in with a positive attitude, you're more likely to have a better

outcome.

Investigators studied 103 patients who underwent total hip replacement

surgery and another 89 who had a knee replacement. Before surgery,

participants completed questionnaires about their overall health, physical

functioning, level of pain, and expectations about treatment. They were

questioned again about their health 6 months after surgery.

Overall, patients experienced significantly less pain and better physical

functioning after surgery. But the three quarters of patients who expected

complete pain relief following their operation reported less pain and better

functioning 6 months after surgery than their counterparts with lower

expectations.

In fact, patient expectations were the second most important determinant of

outcomes after surgery, the report indicates. The biggest predictor of

success was a patient's pre-operative health status.

Journal of Rheumatology June 2002;29:1273-1279