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Optimizing Expectations in Cardiac Surgery Patients

Phase 2
Completed
Conditions
Patients' Expectations
Coronary Heart Disease
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG)
Interventions
Behavioral: Expectation Manipulation Intervention
Behavioral: Supportive Therapy
Registration Number
NCT01407055
Lead Sponsor
Philipps University Marburg Medical Center
Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential benefit of targeting patients' expectations before coronary artery bypass graft surgery through a brief psychoeducational intervention.

Detailed Description

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is an extremely invasive medical intervention.It is postulated that even under these conditions, treatment outcome is substantially determined by non-specific effects, e.g. patient's expectation. Targeting patients' expectations at an early stage might have potential to optimize outcomes after cardiac surgery. The purpose of this research project is to optimize patients' outcome expectations before undergoing cardiac surgery through a brief psycho-educational program. Using a randomized controlled design, 180 patients who are scheduled to undergo elective CABG are randomly assigned either to standard medical information alone, or to an additional expectation manipulation intervention (EMI) during the two weeks before surgery, or to an attention-control group ("supportive therapy"). The main goal is to enhance positive expectations (surgery 'non-specific effects') about favorable outcome through EMI, about coping abilities to deal with adverse events, and to reduce negative expectations and misconceptions. Assessment takes place before and after EMI, 10 days after surgery and 6 months later; same assessment points are used for the 2 control conditions. Primary outcome is disability, which has been shown to be strongly determined by patient's expectation in previous studies. Moreover, psychological and biological predictors and mediators of treatment success are analyzed. A positive result for this expectation intervention would have major implications for clinical practice. In order to optimize treatment outcome, it is not only necessary to improve the treatment-specific procedures (e.g., cardiac surgery) but also to address non-specific factors such as patients' expectations.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
124
Inclusion Criteria
  • Patients scheduled on the elective waiting list for first time coronary artery bypass graft surgery wiht the use of heart-lung-apparatus at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medical School, University of Marburg
  • Sufficient knowledge of German language
  • Ability to give informed consent
Exclusion Criteria
  • Emergency surgery
  • Presence of a serious comorbid psychiatric condition
  • Presence of a life threatening comorbid medical condition
  • Current participation in other research

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Expectation Manipulation InterventionExpectation Manipulation InterventionIn addition to standard medical care patients' expectations prior to surgery are targeted in a brief psycho-educational intervention.
Attention Control GroupSupportive TherapyIn addition to standard medical care patients receive a comparable amount of therapist´s attention (common and unspecific factors = supportive therapy) to the intervention group, without targeting patients' expectations.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Disability 6 months after surgery, controlled for baseline disability (Pain Disability Index; PDI)6 months after surgery
Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in Patients' Expectations from Baseline/Pre-Intervention (expected average of 10 days before surgery) to hospital admission/Post-Intervention (expected average of 1 day before surgery).From 10 days before surgery untill 1 day before surgery

Prospective Illness Perception 6 months after surgery (Expected Illness Perception Questionnaire; IPQ-E), Positive Health Expectation Scale (PHES), Expected Disability (PDI-E)

Change in Cardiac Anxiety (Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire; CAQ) from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery
Change in Physical Activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire; IPAQ) from Baseline (an expected average of 10 days before surgery) to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 6 months after surgery
Change in Health Related Quality of Life (SF-12) from Baseline (expected average of 10 days before surgery) to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 6 months after surgery
Change in physical symptoms, subjective side effects and post-surgery complaints (Generic Assessment of Side Effects Scale; GASE-P)from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery
Change in Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.
Change in Beliefs about Medications (Beliefs about Medications Questionaire; BMQ)from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.
Change in Working ability from Baseline (expected average of 10 days before surgery) to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 6 months after surgery.
Satisfaction wiht the intervention.Expected average of 1 day before surgery (but after the intervention).
Additional treatments during follow-up6 months after surgery

Additional Treatments, rehospitalizations, cardiac sport groups, rehabilitations programms, etc.

Blinded Expert Rating of medical and psychological status at follow-up6 months after surgery
Change in Sleep Quality from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.
Change in neuroendocrine and immunological measures from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.

cortisol, inflammatory processes, catecholamines

Patient Pre-/Peri-/Postoperative Health Status retrospectively collected from patient file6 months after surgery

From Patient file:

Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), Body Mass Index, Blood pressure, Smoking status, Cardiac Operative Risk (EuroSCORE), New York Heart Association classification (NYHA), Canadian Cardiovascular Society grading of angina pectoris (CCS), Number of diseased coronary vessels, Previous myocardial infarctions, extra-cardiac arteriopathy, non-cardiac comorbidities, surgery procedure, surgery complications and in-hospital post surgery complications, time spent on the intensive care unit, inpatient days until discharge

Patients' experience with prior surgeriesBaseline (expected average of 10 days before surgery)

Rating of experience with own prior surgeries. Rating of experience with surgeries of close others.

Enriched Social Support InventoryBaseline (expected average 10 days before surgery)
Occurrence of major life events since surgery6 months after surgery
Change in Patients' Illness Perception (Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) from 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery.From 10 days before surgery to 1 day before surgery to 10 days after surgery to 6 months after surgery
Cardiothoracic surgeons' rating of the surgery successExpected average of 1 day after surgery
Satisfaction with the intervention6 months after surgery

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Philipps University of Marburg

🇩🇪

Marburg, Hessen, Germany

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