Psychological Reactions of Children to the Situation of Surgical Treatment: a Review of Studies

The article presents a review of studies on the psychological reactions of children to a situation of surgical treatment. Surgical treatment is considered as a situation with a high potential for stress, which is due to the variety and high intensity of stress effects which are experienced by the child as new and uncontrolled. Negative psychological responses are observed in children both at the preoperative and postoperative stages. At the preoperative stage, preoperative anxiety is highly prevalent. The risk of its development depends on a complex of factors related to the child themself, his/her environment, as well as the disease, hospital environment, the treatment and the circumstances of hospitalization. Preoperative anxiety is a risk factor for more severe pain symptoms, emotional and behavioral changes in the postoperative period. The article discusses the modern methods for the prevention and correction of preoperative anxiety and postoperative emotional and behavioral changes in children: the presence of parents during the induction of anesthesia, providing information using modern technologies and principles of social learning, distraction and other cognitive and behavioral methods for the correction of the mental state, multimodal methods for harmonizing the emotional state and behavior of children (art therapy, play therapy, clown therapy). The authors come to the conclusion that further research is needed in order to develop algorithms for the psychological support of children in a situation of surgical treatment, taking into account their age, clinical characteristics, the psychological features of the child and his/her parents.

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