Abstract
<jats:p>Background. Anxiety and depression often complicate the postoperative period in cardiac surgery patients, worsening their quality of life. Standard therapy is not always sufficiently effective or has limitations, which determines the relevance of searching for non-drug correction methods, including those using virtual reality (VR) technologies. Aim. To study the effectiveness of the combined use of VR and binaural beats (BB) for reducing anxiety and depression levels in patients in the early postoperative period of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods. A controlled study included 200 patients after CABG with signs of anxiety and depression. Using simple randomization, an experimental group (n=100, a 14-day course of VR relaxation combined with BB at frequency of 11-12 Hz) and a control group (n=100, standard therapy only) were formed. Psychodiagnostics was performed using the Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories, the HADS, the SOM PAI Somatic Symptom Scale, the Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ), and the Spielberger-Khanin State-Trait Anxiety Inventory before and after the intervention. Results. The experimental group showed a statistically significant decrease in scores on the Hospital Anxiety Scale (from 16 to 11), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (from 36 to 32) and Beck Depression Inventory (from 28 to 24), as well as state anxiety (from 46 to 38) (p <0.001). In the control group, the positive dynamics were less pronounced. Conclusion. The combined use of virtual reality technologies and binaural beats is an effective additional method for correcting anxiety and depressive states in patients after CABG, contributing to the improvement of psychoemotional status during the rehabilitation process.</jats:p>