Optimism in Women Undergoing Abdominal Surgery

Can your state of mind affect surgical outcome? Assistant Professor Patricia Wren, of the Oakland University School of Health Sciences has attempted to answer this question for women undergoing surgery to repair a particular type of pelvic floor disorder. She was the lead author on a paper published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons that examined "Optimism in women undergoing abdominal sacrocolpopexy for pelvic organ prolapse" (vol. 207, pp. 240-245, 2008). The study concluded that "in women planning operation for POP [pelvic organ prolapse], optimism is related to pelvic symptom severity, but is not associated with satisfaction with treatment or treatment success. Abdominal sacrocolpopexy resulted in substantial improvements in quality of life and functional outcomes that were not notably influenced by optimism."