A randomized trial found that administering sedatives to patients before they undergo surgery to relieve anxiety did not improve self-reported patient experience and was linked with longer time until the removal of a breathing tube and a lower rate of early cognitive recovery.
The study was published in JAMA. Researchers in France randomly assigned patients to either receive a dose of lorazepam (a commonly used sedative), a placebo or no premedication before surgery. They then assessed patient experience after surgery with a questionnaire.
They found that giving lorazepam to patients did not improve overall satisfaction when compared with no premedication or placebo. Also, the time to extubation was longer in the lorazepam group (17 minutes) than in the no premedication (12 minutes) and placebo (13 minutes) group. Also, fewer patients scored as recovered regarding cognition at 40 minutes after the surgery in the lorazepam group (51 percent) compared to no premedication (71 percent) and the placebo group (64 percent).
"Because there was no overall benefit from preoperative anxiety treatment, it is possible that anxiety arising upon arrival to the operating room does not influence overall patient satisfaction," the study authors wrote. "The findings suggest a lack of benefit with routine use of lorazepam as sedative pre-medication in patients undergoing general anesthesia."