Patients recovered faster from abdominal operations when theywere given specific instructions on how to go through surgery, a newly published UC Davis study shows. The study found that patients recuperated faster when they were given precise, physiological instructions rather than traditional information and reassurance, says research psychologist Henry L. Bennett, an associate professor of clinical anesthesiology at the UC Davis School of Medicine. In the study, Bennett and his colleagues analyzed 40 patients selected from the gastrointestinal surgical unit at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. One group of 15 randomly selected women and five men received specific instructions, and the other group of 14 women and six men received only information and reassurance. The experimental group averaged a hospital stay of 6.5 days after surgery, compared to 8.1 days for the control group, saving an average of $1,200 per experimental patient.