title: Peri-operative nightmares in surgical patients.
abstract: A questionnaire was designed which made specific enquiries about peri-operative nightmares and general enquiries regarding peri-operative hallucinations, sleep disturbance and pain. The questionnaire was completed by four groups of patients. Groups 1 and 2 comprised patients who had undergone elective cardiac surgery and major noncardiac surgery respectively. Group 3 comprised patients undergoing day surgery. Group 4 consisted of 100 randomly selected patients who had undergone minor elective surgery to the upper or lower limbs during the preceding 2 years, half of whom had received regional and half general anaesthesia. Two hundred and seventy-one completed questionnaires were analysed. In all, 18.5% of patients had experienced at least one nightmare during the postoperative week and and the highest incidence (27.9%) was found in group 1. Nightmares occurred most commonly on the fourth postoperative night and did not correlate with disturbed sleep, hallucinations or any other symptom recorded. Patients in group 1 reported the highest incidences of disturbed sleep (54.8%) and hallucinations (12.5%).
authors.affiliation: Royal Perth Hospital, Australia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brimacombe
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Macfie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D000765:Anesthesia, Conduction; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D004325:Dreams; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010149:Postoperative Pain; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders; D013997:Time Factors