Impact of Anxiety on the Decision-making Processes of Anesthesiologists

Except for exaggerated situations in which aspiration risk seems obvious (or absent), the choice of a rapid sequence induction protocol for general anesthesia is often made under uncertainty, according to the individual assessment of the balance between the aspiration risk on one hand and the anaphylaxis risk induced by short-acting curares on the other hand. The impact of anxiety and impulsivity on the choice of induction protocols under uncertainty has never been studied before. In order to investigate this issue, an online anonymous survey has been designed and will be sent to the anesthesiologists of the Bourgogne Franche-Comté and Grand Est regions in France. The primary objective of this study is to assess the impact of trait-anxiety using the STAI-Y2 form on the decision-making process of anesthesiologists during the choice of an induction protocol for patients at risk of aspiration. The secondary objectives are to characterize decision-making profiles, to measure the implicit dimension of anxiety using an Implicit association test, to study the impact of impulsivity on decision-making processes under uncertainty using the short version of UPPS-P scale and to study the role of socio-demographic data and professional history in these decisions.