Anxiety levels in women attending a colposcopy clinic: a randomised trial of an educational intervention using video colposcopy

Patients’ psychological reactions to colposcopy and LLETZ treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

“…High levels of colposcopy-related anxiety and worry were found, supporting previous research [6,8,11,12]. Anxiety interacted with pre-colposcopy concerns, which were not solely related to procedural points, but also to general health concerns.…”

“…Reported rates of non-adherence to treatment of abnormal cervical smear is between 10% and 40% [3,4]. The screening process is associated with high levels of anxiety, especially for women with abnormal smear results [5,6], who must attend for diagnostic investigation by colposcopy [7][8][9]. High levels of anxiety associated with cervical cancer screening may be one factor affecting adherence to treatment.…”

Effect of Pre-Procedural State-Trait Anxiety on Pain Perception and Discomfort in Women Undergoing Colposcopy for Cervical Cytological Abnormalities

“…However, these interventions were not associated with a decrease in precolposcopy anxiety scores (Chan et al, 2004). Walsh et al (2004) published another study on the anxiety reducing effects of educational intervention using a video colposcope, for women who had two consecutive visits for colposcopy (Walsh et al, 2004). The authors reported that patient anxiety and pain decrease was significantly higher in the group who had a video colposcopy session.…”

“…There are numerous studies that have assessed various interventions to reduce anxiety for women undergoing colposcopy (Freeman-Wang et al, 2001;Walsh et al, 2004;Danhauer et al, 2007;de Bie et al, 2011;. Although it is obvious that reducing anxiety would have a positive psychological impact for these women, it is currently unclear that to what extent anxiety may effect pain and discomfort during this procedure.…”

Attention focus, trait anxiety and pain perception in patients undergoing colposcopy

“…Colposcopy is an invasive diagnostic procedure, of relatively short duration (approximately 10 minutes), aimed at detecting pre-cancerous cervical lesions using a flexible magnifying viewing instrument (colposcope) to examine the woman's cervix. It is highly anxiety-provoking (Freeman-Wang et al, 2001;Rogstad, 2002;Walsh et al, 2004) and involves moderate pain (Chan et al, 2003;Kola and Walsh, 2009). Further, similar to many medical procedures, colposcopy patients have little control over the procedure, and must undergo it without direct social support.…”