[Equivalence of oral and intramuscular premedication. III. Effect of premedication on anesthesia and postoperative pain].

600 patients were given 6 different premedications in randomised design to study their effect on the course of anaesthesia and on postoperative pain. Premedication acts indirectly on anaesthesia, depending on the influence of the drug on anxiety and on the somatic correlates of anxiety. The greater the sedative-anxiolytic effect of the premedication, the easier it is to induce anaesthesia, and the more superficial the anaesthesia, resulting in earlier and stronger onset of postoperative pain. On the other hand, the more anxious the patient is, the more he consumes anaesthetic drugs, whereas anaesthesia remains superficial with the same consequences in respect of postoperative pain. In view of postoperative pain, fast and early awakening from anaesthesia must not be aimed at, particularly after operations which definitely result in postoperative pain (long-term operations in those regions of the body that cannot be immobilised).