The Effect of Guided Imagery Technique on Anxiety, Pain, and Analgesic Use in Total Joint Arthroplasty Patients

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Guided imagery technique application: Intervention is a guided imagery technique designed for patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. It will be administered in a total of 4 sessions: once daily on the day before surgery, twice daily on the day of surgery, and once daily on the 2nd and 3rd days after surgery, accompanied by imagery scenarios developed in accordance with the Compact Disc (CD) and literature developed by the Turkish Psychological Association. The study aims to examine its effects on surgical anxiety levels, postoperative pain intensity, and analgesic consumption. This approach is structured as a non-pharmacological method specific to surgical nursing practice and differs from previous similar studies in that it is applied in both the preoperative and postoperative periods using the same sample in the literature.

Study summary

This randomized controlled study will investigate the effects of guided imagery on preoperative anxiety and postoperative pain and analgesic consumption in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. Conducted between September 2025 and June 2026 at a public hospital in Zonguldak, Turkey, the study will include patients scheduled for total joint arthroplasty following ethics committee approval. The intervention group will receive guided imagery twice preoperatively and once daily at 48 and 72 hours postoperatively. Outcomes will be assessed using the Surgical Anxiety Scale, surgery-specific anxiety scale, Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), and analgesic consumption tracking.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Surgical Anxiety Scale — September 2025-June 2026 (9 months)
  The scale was developed in Turkish by Karanci and Dirik (2003) and is a 5-point Likert-type scale (1: Strongly disagree, 5: Strongly agree). The scale consists of 10 statements covering fears that patients may experience regarding surgery. The maximum score that can be obtained from the scale is 50. High scores on the scale reflect anxiety about experiencing pain, dying during surgery, and complications and restrictions that may arise after surgery. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the scale was found to be 0.79.

Trial sites (1)

More Ankara Yildirim Beyazıt University trials in Turkey