Limitations
anxiety
The study did not consider the type of procedure an individual patient was undergoing, the difference in steps and length of gut preparation methods and the estimated time of the particular procedure.This was a single centre, experimental study conducted in patients who were undergoing similar procedures (gastroscopy or colonoscopy) albeit with the addition of interventions in some patients that can have an impact on the anxiety, fear or acute stress scores. Although, the patients were shown a brief animation of the respective procedure after a counselling session but they were not requested to perform a relaxation exercise to evaluate and compare the effect of relaxation techniques versus counselling alone in patients undergoing medical or surgical procedures. A multicentre, experimental study can be planned to study whether a 5-min relaxation exercise can help alleviate the anxiety, acute stress or fear further or counselling along with video of procedure is beneficial for the patients undergoing any medical or surgical intervention.