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“Chronic pain is a problem that has reached near epidemic proportions,” said Edward Covington, M.D., director of the Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program at the Cleveland Clinic. “The ‘can do, can cope’ spirit of Americans can lead to untreated chronic pain, which has a severe impact on people’s work, personal relationships, hobbies, and even sex, and can greatly diminish their quality of life. In addition to physical disability, it may also lead to irritability, anxiety, or depression.”

Scientific American Mind (July, 2005) featured an article titled “The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis” which stated that “hypnosis has been shown to be a real phenomenon with a variety of therapeutic uses- especially in controlling pain,” citing, among others, a 1996 National Institutes of Health panel which judged hypnosis to be an “effective intervention for alleviating pain from cancer and other chronic conditions.” The article further cites a meta-analysis published by the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis which found that “hypnotic suggestions relieved the pain of 75% of 933 subjects. The pain relieving effect of hypnosis is often substantial, and in a few cases the degree of relief matches or exceeds that provided by morphine.” Another meta-analysis of 18 separate studies found that “patients who received cognitive behavioral therapy plus hypnosis for disorders such as obesity, insomnia, anxiety and hypertension showed greater improvement than 70% of those who received psychotherapy alone.” Additionally, the article stated there is strong evidence that hypnosis can be an effective treatment for “asthma; some dermatological disorders, including warts; irritable bowel syndrome; hemophilia; and nausea associated with chemotherapy.”

The success of hypnotherapy in pain treatment and management has a very long history. The following studies are more than 20 years old and the supporting research is mounting.

Speigel and Bloom (1983b) reported that a study of women with metastatic breast cancer showed that patients who received group therapy with training in Hypnosis over a one-year period were able to reduce their pain experience by 50% when compared to a control group. In addition, at a 10-year follow-up of these same women, the Hypnosis treatment group had a mean survival rate of 36.6 months compared to 18.9 months for the controls. This suggests that the intervention may be both important quantitative and important qualitative effects (Spiegel 1989a)

In a neurochemical study of Hypnotic control of pain conducted by Domangue (1985), patients suffering arthritic pain showed a correlation among levels of pain, anxiety and depression. Depression was correlated with dopamine levels and negatively correlated with levels of serotonin and beta endorphin. Following Hypnotherapy, there were clinically and statistically significant decreases in depression, anxiety and pain, and increases in beta endorphin-like substances.

 In a controlled trial conducted by Olness (1987), self-Hypnosis was shown to be significantly more effective than either propranolol or placebo in reducing the frequency of migraine headaches in children between the ages of six and twelve years of age.

Tags: Health & Well-Being, Hypnotherapy, Pain Management

In studies about how the human brain and nervous system work, Dr. Kenneth Casey, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan and a neurology consultant to the VA Health Care System in Ann Arbor states that “the brain has mechanisms to directly control what we feel, it actively controls the flow of sensory information that results in our perceptions.”

In fact, key regions of the brain appear to react as much to the expectation of pain as much as they do to actual painful stimulation. Experiments at the University of Michigan and Princeton University showed that the same region in the brains’ prefrontal cortex that anticipates pain is less active if a person expects a stimulus to hurt less.

Hypnotherapy can help with the perception of pain, by changing the expectation. The mind can alter the feeling of pain by substituting another feeling such as heat, tingling, numbness. It can also divert the location of pain to another body part, thereby allowing relief.  In a January 5, 2004 article by Benedict Carey, The Los Angeles Times reports “the brain can virtually shut down pain signals when preoccupied.”

In 2002, Mount Sinai researchers performed studies which found that adding hypnosis to standard post-surgical care sped the recovery almost 90% of the time in terms of levels of pain, anxiety and the need for painkillers. “The hypnosis seems to change expectations and this change appears to have a strong effect on what people actually experience” says Montgomery, an author on the studies.

Dr. Karen Olness, a professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Family Medicine and International Health at Case Western Reserve University states, “With sufficient practice, many adults can learn to tolerate various painful procedures without medication” Nearly everyone can use self-hypnosis to “reduce the fear and anxiety that accompanies and that can heighten pain.”

A 1999 study reported in the European Journal of Pain states “Hypnosis is a powerful tool in pain therapy.” Researchers used a PET imaging machine to trace the blood-flow patterns of fibromyalgia patients while under hypnosis and “proved there are actual blood-flow changes and patterns in the interplay between cortical and subcortical brain dynamics,” concluding “the patients had less pain during hypnosis than at rest.”

Are you suffering from chronic pain? Are you suffering anxiety and anticipating pain from a surgical procedure? Would you like to learn ways to manage it? Hypnotherapy may be the answer.

Tags: Health & Well-Being, Hypnotherapy, Pain Management