Patient/Anesthesiologist Intersubjective Experiences and Intravenous Supplementation During Elective Cesarean Delivery: A Prospective Patient-reported Outcome Study

( J Clin Anesth . 2025;100:111689. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2024.111689) Pain during cesarean delivery is a common issue, and intraoperative pain that is not well-managed can lead to poor long-term outcomes. Potential barriers to proper intraoperative pain management include misinterpretation of patient discomfort as anxiety or incomplete spinal blocks that go undetected or unacknowledged. There is, in addition, large variation in what information patients are given preoperatively and the amount of shared decision-making that takes place with the patients. This study was designed to evaluate the relationship between patient-reported pain and anxiety levels, requests for medication, and the administration of analgesics and anxiolytics during elective cesarean deliveries with spinal anesthesia. In addition, this study aimed to evaluate the impacts of interactions between patients and anesthesiologists as well as socioeconomic demographics, and the role of transference and countertransference within racial bias on medication decisions.