Stefan Salzmann

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that all HRV-measures were lower in MD than in healthy controls and thus strengthens evidence for lower HRV as a potential cardiovascular risk factor in these patients.

TL;DR: Optimizing patients’ expectations pre-surgery helps to improve outcome 6 months after treatment, implying that making use of placebo mechanisms has the potential to improve long-term outcome of highly invasive medical interventions.

TL;DR: It is recommended that future research should apply standardized, psychometrically evaluated measures, assessing multidimensional aspects of patients’ expectations that are applicable across various medical treatments, to generate a more comprehensive understanding of expectation effects in medical treatments.

TL;DR: In addition to SMC, preoperative psychological interventions seem to buffer psychobiological stress responses and could thus facilitate recovery from CABG surgery and could thereby improve recovery after heart surgery.

TL;DR: Changing patients' preoperative expectations via a psychological intervention leads to less days spent in the hospital and the psychological interventions are associated with positive cost-benefit ratios.