Texting while under anesthesia gives you a healthy boost? Well, yes. Exchanging messages with someone – even a stranger – during some procedures could mean less need for pain relievers.Call it a “little help from my friends” – and strangers.

For all the criticism texting receives – especially while people drive – messaging can be of benefit for patients undergoing minor surgery: That’s especially true if the texting is done with a stranger. So says a recently published study from RTI International.

“Text messaging during surgery provides analgesic-sparing benefits that surpass distraction techniques, suggesting that mobile phones provide new opportunities for social support to improve patient comfort and reduce analgesic requirements during minor surgeries and in other clinical settings,” concludes the study from a researcher at RTI and colleagues at Cornell University as well as LaSalle Hospital in Montreal.

The study acknowledges the message about “getting by” with support from friends.

“The Beatles 1967 lyric “I get by with a little help from my friends” connotes a deeper meaning than just getting someone through a bad day,” the authors wrote in the study published in the journal Pain Medicine.

“Social support, defined here as perceived and actual support from known others, often during aversive experiences, facilitates mental and physical health.

“People who experience lower levels of loneliness and relationship disruptions are less likely to suffer detriments to immune system functioning and depression.

“Social support is correlated with reduced pain perceptions (e.g., childbirth and postoperative pain), and experimental research shows a causal link between social support and pain. People are able to endure pain longer and perceive pain as less severe with social support. Even a minimal representation of social support (e.g., a loved one’s photograph) attenuates pain.”

Strangers, especially

But social support from strangers has an even bigger role.

“Although at first it seems counterintuitive that text messaging with a stranger was more effective than with a companion, it’s the content of the conversation that makes the difference in reducing patients’ need for pain relief during surgery,” says Dr. Jamie Guillory, a digital mental health research scientist at RTI, who conducted the study while at Cornell University. Cornell funded the study. Guillory called the study’s findings “”significant.”

“These findings suggest that the simple act of communicating with a companion or stranger reduces the need for supplemental anesthesia in a way that surpasses usual perioperative care during surgery,” Guillory said. “This is significant as the physical presence of a social support companion is often not feasible during many minor surgery procedures.”

Some 98 patients were recruited for the study in Canada for three months in 2012. They received general anesthesia for minor surgeries. Each was asked to text message a companion, exchange a message with a stronger or play a mobile game or do nothing. The goal was to see if there was an impact on the need for “narcotic pain relief” through social contact.

“While both texting conditions reduced the need for pain management better than standard surgery, only texting a stranger reduced it beyond the distraction method of playing a mobile phone game,” RTI reported. ” The researchers believe that is because the conversations with strangers were more emotionally positive, focusing on topics and values personally relevant to the patient.”

Study abstract

Here’s the abstract of the study:

  • Objective. This study aims to determine whether communicating via short message service text message during surgery procedures leads to decreased intake of fentanyl for patients receiving regional anesthesia below the waist compared with a distraction condition and no intervention.
  • Methods. Ninety-eight patients receiving regional anesthesia for minor surgeries were recruited from a hospital in Montreal, QC, between January and March 2012. Patients were randomly assigned to text message with a companion, text message with a stranger, play a distracting mobile phone game, or receive standard perioperative management. Participants who were asked to text message or play a game did so before receiving the anesthetic and continued until the end of the procedure.
  • Results. The odds of receiving supplemental anal- gesia during surgery for patients receiving standard perioperative management were 6.77 ( P = 0.009; N = 13/25) times the odds for patients in the text a stranger condition (N = 22/25 of patients), 4.39 times the odds for those in the text a companion condition (P = 0.03; N = 19/23), and 1.96 times the odds for those in the distraction condition (P = 0.25; N = 17/25).
  • Conclusion. Text messaging during surgery provides analgesic-sparing benefits that surpass distraction techniques, suggesting that mobile phones provide new opportunities for social support to improve patient comfort and reduce analgesic requirements during minor surgeries and in other clinical settings.

Read more at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pme.12610/abstract

RTI International is based in RTP and is a global research organization.