I had a minor outpatient procedure (endoscopy) scheduled and was dreading the pre-operative waiting period. I have health anxiety, and sitting in a hospital gown waiting for a procedure is my personal version of hell. In the past, I have been given lorazepam pre-operatively, but this time my anesthesiologist said it was unnecessary for such a short procedure.
After reading about a clinical trial where passionflower was as effective as oxazepam for pre-operative anxiety, I asked my anesthesiologist if I could take passionflower extract beforehand. She looked it up, confirmed no significant interaction with the sedation protocol, and gave me the go-ahead.
I took 500mg of a standardized passionflower extract 90 minutes before my check-in time. By the time I was in the pre-op area, I was noticeably calmer than I expected to be. My heart rate was lower than my pre-procedure baseline (the nurse commented that I seemed remarkably calm). The familiar spiral of catastrophic health anxiety thoughts was present but muted — like hearing an argument in the next room rather than being in the middle of it.
Was it as effective as pharmaceutical pre-operative anxiolysis? No. Lorazepam would have made me not care at all. With passionflower, I still cared, but the caring was manageable. The anxiety was a 4/10 rather than the 8/10 I had expected. Given that the alternative was taking nothing and white-knuckling through the wait, passionflower was a significant improvement.
The procedure went fine. No interaction with the propofol sedation. I would absolutely do this again for any future minor procedures. For major surgery, I would still want pharmaceutical anxiolysis, but for day procedures where a benzodiazepine feels like overkill, passionflower filled the gap well.