Effect of Psychoneurobics (Meditation technique) on level of Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery.

Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional experience that involves feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness and high autonomic activity. Major life changes are among factors that cause anxiety, and one of these changes is surgery.

Cataract surgery is one of the most common operations performed and one of the safest and most effective. Most cataract surgery is now performed under local anesthesia on a day-care basis. As patients are fully conscious during the procedure, it is important that they remain still. Everyone is anxious when facing cataract surgery because of the fear of unknown.

 Anxiety is expected in pre-operative patients, the incidence of pre- operative anxiety is reported to range from 11-80% among patients. Preoperative anxiety is a challenging concept in the preoperative care of patients. Most patients awaiting elective surgery experience anxiety and it is widely accepted as an expected response. If unrecognized, prolonged anxiety creates stress which may subsequently harm the patient and delay recovery.

 When surgery is recommended to an individual, the proposed operation, regardless of its extent, is perceived by the patient to be a major procedure. Besides that, patients will think about the recovery state and operative effect for their daily living, and also a fear about death and dying.3

 A variety of therapeutic approaches have been made to reducing the anxiety before the operation, like music therapy, meditation, or spiritual therapy. Spirituality approach can be used to reduce patient’s anxiety, especially when they are facing a medical-surgical procedure.

 Role of Psycho Neurobics****– Psycho-neurobics is a meditation technique for effective healing through complete involvement of mind, body and soul. It encapsulated the supporting aspects of Rajyoga and Mudra healing. As Aerobics is the exercises of pumping air into lungs, neurobics is the exercises of creating bio electrical impulses in neuro cells / neuro transmitters by various motor or mental activities; similarly Psycho Neurobics is the exercises of transferring Spiritual Energy in neuro cells by connecting Psyche (Mind) to the Supreme Source of Spiritual Energy (God). Spirituality makes one feel the quietness. When calm, stress hormones will be reduced, so that the impact of stress hormones on wound healing can be minimized.

 Although meditation has been practiced for centuries, it is only recently that the effects of meditation have been studied more extensively within the scientific community. Modern science has acknowledged the role of psyche, thought and emotions in healthy and unhealthy response in the body. So the present study is designed to assess the effect of Psychoneurobics (Neurobic spa) on anxiety level of patients undergoing cataract surgery. As in clinical settings - in the preoperative phase - extensive questionnaires are not applicable. Therefore, it is important to have applicable screening instruments to assess preoperative anxiety. So Besides objectivity, reliability and validity, the applicability is essential which refers to brevity, clinical relevance, patients’ acceptance as well as a fast and simple analysis format.