Abstract

In 1964, anesthesiologists at Harvard Medical School studied a group of patients about to undergo major abdominal surgery. Half the patients got the standard preoperative visit. The other half received an enhanced visit dealing with postoperative pain. That half were told that pain is normal and expected, that they would receive medications as ordered by their physicians, that they could also use several self-help techniques to relieve pain, and that nurses and physicians would be standing by to assist them if needed. The enhanced-visit group ended up requesting half as many opioid analgesics as the other group, and they were discharged an average of two days earlier, despite successful blinding (Egbert et al....