Today I am going to tell you about a fascinating study I read about recently in, of all places, the Journal of Anesthesia. I know, what was I doing there. Sometimes my reading takes me to strange places. I read about the article in a Reuters news piece but I thought it was so interesting that I had to do a post on the subject. The authors were trying to answer the question, "Which is better at lowering anxiety in children about to have surgery, an iPad or traditional anxiety drugs like Versed or Xanax?" Just watch this amazing video from the investigators to see how it can work, https://vimeo.com/62312705. The authors designed a study to answer anaesthsia versus ipad question, using children ages 1-11 who were about to have surgery. To their surprise, they found the the iPad was far more effective at relieving the children's anxiety about leaving their parents and going into an operating room than the standard drugs that are used for the purpose. Additional benefits were that the
