Hypnosis and pain control

Hypnosis as a treatment of chronic widespread pain in general practice: A randomized controlled pilot trial
AUTHOR(S): Sharma R.L.
DATE: October 2009
DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial
SUBJECTS: 16
OBJECTIVE: Hypnosis treatment in general practice is a rather new concept. This pilot study was performed to evaluate the effect of a standardized hypnosis treatment used in general practice for patients with chronic widespread pain (CWP).
INTERVENTIONS: The study was designed as a randomized control group-controlled study. Sixteen patients were randomized into a treatment group or a control group, each constituting eight patients. Seven patients in the treatment group completed the schedule. After the control period, five of the patients in the control group also received treatment, making a total of 12 patients having completed the treatment sessions. The intervention group went through a standardized hypnosis treatment with ten consecutive therapeutic sessions once a week, each lasting for about 30 minutes, focusing on ego-strengthening, relaxation, releasing muscular tension and increasing self-efficacy. A questionnaire was developed in order to calibrate the symptoms before and after the 10 weeks period, and the results were interpolated into a scale from 0 to 100, increasing numbers representing increasing suffering. Data was analyzed by means of T-tests.
RESULTS: The treatment group improved from their symptoms, (change from 62.5 to 55.4), while the control group deteriorated, (change from 37.2 to 45.1), (p = 0,045). The 12 patients who completed the treatment showed a mean improvement from 51.5 to 41.6. (p = 0,046). One year later the corresponding result was 41.3, indicating a persisting improvement.
CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that hypnosis treatment may have a positive effect on pain and quality of life for patients with chronic muscular pain. Considering the limited number of patients, more studies should be conducted to confirm the results.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal: Vol.337, Issue 7674

Hypnotherapists Directory

Recognising the need for help is often one of the biggest steps on the road to recovery. But once the initial decision has been made there are numerous issues to consider - practical and otherwise. What about, for example, location, money, professionalism?

This is where Hypnotherapy Directory comes in. It was set up to provide a simple, easy, and most importantly un-daunting way of connecting people that need help with the people that provide it. A comprehensive searching tool, the site allows postcode, town and country searches of the whole of the UK, and produces a list of hypnotherapists registered in this area. Each hypnotherapist has a profile, listing a bit about themselves, their approaches, what areas they deal with, and all their training, qualification and experience and fees.

The site shows which hypnotherapists are registered/accredited with a professional body, and full profiles are only displayed after insurance and qualification documents are checked or membership with a professional body has been verified.

Hypnotherapy Directory has also become a huge information bank - there are articles written by hypnotherapists, as well as comprehensive information on all kinds of distress - from depression to eating disorders to phobias, to help people identify their problems and become informed, not scared.


www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk

Hypnotherapy in the news

“Professor David Spiegel, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, wants the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to sanction sweeping changes.

He will tell the Royal Society of Medicine on Monday that Nice should add hypnotherapy to its list of approved therapeutic techniques for the treatment of conditions ranging from allergies and high blood pressure to the pain associated with cancer treatment and bone marrow transplantation.”

Please follow this link to the article :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5468518/British-surgeons-should-hypnotise-patients-for-some-operations-says-academic.html

New Stop Smoking research

Source: Medscape Medical News



Hypnotherapy Outperforms Other Treatment Approaches for Smoking Cessation CME



October 23, 2007 (Chicago) - Of hospitalized smokers who receive hypnotherapy, 50% show sustained quit rates 6 months after discharge, investigators reported here at CHEST 2007, the American College of Chest Physicians 73rd Annual Scientific Assembly.



This is twice the success rate of smokers who quit "cold turkey," which is even higher than the sustained quit rate with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), principal investigator Faysal M. Hasan, MD, of North Shore Medical Center in Salem, Massachusetts, reported yesterday during a news briefing.



Dr. Hasan and colleagues studied 67 patients admitted to their institution with a cardiopulmonary diagnosis and a willingness to stop smoking. Patients were divided into 4 groups. The control group quit smoking without any supportive treatment, a second group underwent hypnotherapy, a third group received NRT, and the fourth group received both hypnotherapy and NRT.



Patients selected their own treatment approach, which Dr. Hasan explained was strongly influenced by their previous experiences with smoking cessation, with most patients choosing a different method.



Women were more likely to choose hypnotherapy, whereas men were more likely to choose a patch or go cold turkey. The men were looking for the "quick fix," news panel moderator Frank T. Leone, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Pittsburgh, commented.



At 26 weeks postdischarge from the hospital, 25% of the control group, 15.78% of the NRT group, and 50% of both the hypnotherapy and hypnotherapy-plus-NRT groups remained smoking free.



"Adding NRT did not help" improve efficacy of hypnotherapy, Dr. Hasan said.



Dr. Hasan told Medscape Pulmonary Medicine that motivation is the key to success in any treatment approach: "Patients made their own [treatment] choice - this is important," he said. "Smoking cessation is only going to work if the patient is motivated."

Hypnosis and bowel inflammation

Hypnosis therapy may help ease some of the bowel inflammation seen in ulcerative colitis, a small study suggests.

Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes chronic inflammation in the lining of the colon and rectum, leading to symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. There a number of medications for the disorder, but there is some research to suggest that hypnosis could serve as an additional therapy.

For example, "hypnotherapy" has been shown to aid irritable bowel syndrome and ulcers -- conditions that, like colitis, involve inflammation and can be worsened by psychological stress.

For the current study, UK researchers had 17 patients with active ulcerative colitis undergo a 50-minute session of "gut-focused" hypnotherapy aimed at relaxation and relief of inflammation. Another eight patients, who acted as a "control" group, listened to their choice of music for 50 minutes.


Afterward, the researchers found, blood levels of IL-6 -- a marker of inflammation in the body -- fell by 53 percent in the hypnosis group, whereas music listeners showed no substantial change.

Similarly, certain other chemical markers of inflammation declined in the hypnosis group, but not in the control group, the investigators report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

"This work shows that a single short session of hypnosis can return some of the chemical changes in the bowel associated with inflammation back towards normal in patients with ulcerative colitis," senior researcher Dr. David S. Rampton, of Barts and the London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, told Reuters Health.

Exactly why hypnosis might ease inflammation is not clear. According to Rampton's team, the therapy might have direct effects on colon activity or it might affect people's pain tolerance or perceptions of their symptoms.

The current findings, Rampton said, provide "a scientific basis for a properly designed clinical trial" to see whether hypnotherapy, given over weeks or months, might benefit people with ulcerative colitis.

He noted that it could also be worthwhile to study hypnosis for people with Crohn's disease, another form of inflammatory bowel disease.

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, June 2008

More good news on smoking cessation

Hypnotherapy as an aid to smoking cessation of hospitalized patients: preliminary results

AUTHOR(S): Hasan FM, Pischke, K, Saiyed S, Macys D and McCleary

NDATE: Oct 2007

DESIGN: Self-selected trial

SUBJECTS: 67 patients admitted with a cardiopulmonary diagnosis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of hypnosis in smoking cessation in hospitalised patients.

INTERVENTIONS: Subjects contemplating quitting were recruited into 4 groups: Control subjects who preferred to quit "cold turkey" (C), hypnotherapy alone (H), Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and both hypnotherapy and NRT (NRTH). Subjects were allowed to self select their group. All subjects received self-help brochures. Control subjects received brief counselling, but other groups received intensive counselling, free supply of NRT and/or a free hypnotherapy session within 7 days of discharge. These groups also had follow up telephone calls at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 26 weeks after discharge. Point prevalence rates for smoking were compared among the four groups at 26 weeks.

RESULTS: At 26 weeks after discharge, 4/12 of control subjects (25.0%), 7/14 in H (50.0%), 3/19 in NRT (15.78%) and 9/18 in NRTH (50%.0) groups were non-smokers. Patients admitted with a cardiac diagnosis were more like to quit at 26 weeks (45.5%) than patients admitted with a pulmonary diagnosis (15.63%).

CONCLUSIONS: Hypnotherapy after hospital discharge can be an effective mode of smoking cessation, comparing favourably with NRT alone.

SOURCE: Chest 2007 132: 52

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