Anxiety is a high incidence symptom in the treatment of cancer patients. In the case of breast cancer, anxiety can occur after the diagnosis or shortly after a mutilating surgery. This paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing research aiming to investigate the effects of modern means of information in the evaluation of pain perception in mastectomy patients in the Mastectomy Centre of the "Hospital das Clínicas" in Porto Alegre, South of Brazil. A sample of 22 patients divided into two groups was studied using a standard experimental method. An informational video was shown to one of the groups in the pre-operation period. The anxiety of both groups was evaluated by the Portuguese version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results showed higher scores of anxiety in the control group after surgery. Such data reveal the benefits of using video information to increase the well being of these patients. However, a larger sample is recommended in order to enhance the results.
video; anxiety; mastectomy
