A study published in this month's medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine article The Effect of Light on Postoperative Analgesic Medication Use: A Prospective Study of Patients Undergoing Spinal Surgery reports that postoperative patients in hospital rooms with more sunlight required less pain medications.
I was intrigued by this report in part because the patients in the study had undergone the same surgery that I recently had. Would this report reveal something that could have helped me? I was a bit concerned however that the name of the journal was Psychosomatic Medicine and worried that even positive information gleaned from this study may become misconstrued by popular media as another way to insinuate that most of our pain is in our head. After seeing the results of the study though I am compelled to spread the information that increased sunlight can help postoperative patients. This seems like a relatively simple addition to standard treatment. Open our curtains! Let there be light!
I experienced this myself when leaving the hospital and upon returning home. As I was wheeled out, face skyward, to the waiting ambulance I was suddenly blinded by the sun above me. I had been in hospital for a full week and even with curtains open had seen nothing like this. That is because the windows of the hospital were heavily tinted, something I had not realized until this sudden blinding upon my exit. Once my eyes adjusted and I arrived home I continually commented on how much happier and better I felt being home with real sights and sounds. The sound of a bird brought tears to my eyes and I lay in bed staring at tree leaves for days (perhaps it was the morphine, but those trees were SO fascinating!). In part it may be the association with what we individually consider normalcy that aids us in our recovery. For me watching sunlight on a leaf was calming (and o.k., o.k there were all of those faces in the branches too) but this may be different for different people, especially if another patient were not sighted (and they would not have to look at those other faces in the trees) so the boundaries of this research has not been tested yet but I do find it promising.
Ultimately I would love to someday see healthcare revolutionized to the point where there is no longer institutional care of any kind. When a person is in an inpatient setting it should mimic a comfortable home setting in every way possible. Perhaps part of the problem is that we view the two as mutually exclusive. We assume that a standard home does not have accessability and safety features. Why? Why is it not standard to have such basic things as safety rails? If we were to take the positives from both the hospital and the home environment we may finally find a habitable environment for all.
well, thats like how they say us folks in the midwest get depressed during the winter months because we dont have much sun. and of course i am sure those folks that get the 6 months of night time suffer. stupid hospitals! they act like they are so smart all the time...
Posted by: cat | February 22, 2005 at 11:56 AM