Can Hormone Treatment Ease Post-Surgery Behavior Changes in Children?
CHICAGO – (June 23, 2009) A scary unknown for many children, the prospect of surgery can cause intense preoperative anxiety. While some amount of stress is normal, what many parents do not know is that extreme anxiety before surgery can contribute to the occurrence of emergence delirium, a distressing incidence of acute behavioral changes experienced when “waking up” from anesthesia. Now in the July issue of Anesthesiology, physicians focused on reducing anxiety in children and their families report that oral treatment with melatonin before surgery can significantly reduce the occurrence of emergence delirium in children. Affecting up to 20 percent of children who undergo surgery, emergence delirium in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) consists of acute behavior changes including crying, thrashing and need for restraint. According to researchers, this can also lead to the development of behavioral changes outside the recovery suite with the onset of nightmares, bed wetting and separ
