Guided IMagery and Patient Satisfaction (GIMPS) Following Urogynecological Surgery (GIMPS)

July 27, 2017 updated by: Elizabeth Mueller, Loyola University

Guided IMagery and Patient Satisfaction Following Urogynecological Surgery

We hypothesize that women who use GIM pre-operatively will feel more prepared for surgery, have less anxiety on the day of surgery and have higher satisfaction scores 6 weeks after surgery compared to women who undergo our routine pre-operative care.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Guided imagery (GIM) is a program of directed thoughts and suggestions that guide your imagination to a relaxed and focused state. In clinical settings, it was originally found effective in treating patients suffering primarily from emotional or psychological issues by using descriptive language and the five senses to help the patient visualize their desired change or outcome (1, 2). More recently, GIM has been incorporated into chemotherapy and surgical settings. While it has not been conclusively found to improve outcomes, patients who received GIM reported feeling less anxious, less nausea following chemotherapy, slightly shorter surgical recovery times and a higher quality of life (3-8). While these studies suggest exciting prospects for the incorporation of GIM into the normal pre-op routine, we believe that they have left out one integral piece of the puzzle. We have previously found that patients who feel "unprepared" for surgery have less post-operative satisfaction (9). We propose that the stress and anxiety of the unknown during a patient's surgical experience can make them feel unprepared for surgery. Therefore, the same techniques that have been previously shown to decrease these symptoms in chemotherapy treatment and surgery should help patients feel more prepared, and therefore more satisfied with their surgical experience. This key finding would give sufficient support for the incorporation of GIM into the pre-op routine of any surgical patient, and may prove to be a successful vehicle for increasing the overall satisfaction of any hospital's patient population.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

44

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Maywood, Illinois, United States, 60153
        • Loyola University Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • routine vaginal or laparoscopic surgery for pelvic organ prolapse planned ≥ 1 week from enrollment
  • a planned overnight hospital stay
  • commitment to listen to a 15 minute audio Compact Disc daily
  • proficiency in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not having routine vaginal or laparoscopic surgery for pelvic organ prolapse planned ≥ 1 week from enrollment
  • Not a planned overnight hospital stay
  • Unable to commitment to listen to a 15 minute audio Compact Disc daily
  • Not proficiency in English.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Guided IMagery (GIM)
If randomized to GIM, they will then be given an audio Compact Disc. Patients will be instructed to listen to the recording least once per day in a calm location during the week leading up to surgery. They will then be seen prior to surgery in the surgical waiting area where they will evaluated for anxiety, preparedness and study compliance.
Behavioral: Guided IMagery (GIM)
It's a program of directed thoughts and suggestions that guide your imagination to a relaxed and focused state.
No Intervention: Standard of Care (SOC)

Each participant will complete a baseline set of questionnaires. The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI) is a 20 question self-administered questionnaire on the presence and both of pelvic floor symptoms .

The Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification System (POPQ) measures the topography of the vagina and is considered to be gold standard for quantifying prolapse .

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) has been used extensively in research and clinical practice since its introduction in 1966 and is the most widely cited measure of anxiety.

New measurements at the 6-week follow-up appointment will include the Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGII), and a postoperative questionnaire eliciting overall satisfaction and development of new pelvic symptoms.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in patient satisfaction with urogynecological surgery when using GIM (questionnaire)
Time Frame: 6 weeks
Women will report their satisfaction with their surgical experience 6 weeks after surgery using a 10-point Likert scale.
6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in patient sense of preparedness when using GIM (questionnaire)
Time Frame: 6 weeks
Preparedness will be measured at baseline, day of surgery, and 6 weeks after surgery to determine how GIM affected patient preparedness. It will be measured using a 10-point Likert scale
6 weeks
Change in patient anxiety about surgery when using GIM (questionnaire)
Time Frame: 6 week
Patient anxiety will be measured at baseline, day of surgery and at 6 weeks post op to determine how GIM affected anxiety. It will be measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), which has been used extensively in research and clinical practice since its introduction in 1966 and is the most widely cited measure of anxiety.
6 week

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Loyola University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Mueller, MD, Loyola University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 5, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 13, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

June 17, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 31, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 27, 2017

Last Verified

July 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 206481

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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