Results from Studies
Successful Hypnosis for Obesity
Obesity is a major health problem, commonly resulting in diabetes, hypertension, cerebrovascular, cardiovascular disease and obstructive sleep apnoea. It is often treated with radical surgery. This can be avoided with hypnosis.
Eight obese adults and three children have been treated successfully with hypnosis. Techniques include approaching underlying anxiety, reframing, reinforcement for healthy diet, discomfort with unhealthy diet and positive visualisation.
Two cases of women in their mid-forties are discussed in detail. Both were apparently related to sexual abuse in childhood. They achieved reframing into their present selves from the child before the abuse, enjoying all aspects of eating and drinking appropriately and rejecting inappropriate diet, in a reasonable period and visualising removal of a ‘fat suit’, to achieve their desired weight loss. One was able to avoid surgery and the other achieved her goal, despite failed ‘lap band surgery’.
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Source: Internal Medicine Journal, 2017
Hypnosis for Cancer Care: Over 200 Years Young
Hypnosis is an efficacious tool in cancer prevention and control. In the past two centuries, research on hypnosis has continued to support the efficacy of hypnosis in the cancer setting as an adjunct to modern care (e.g., analgesics). That is, hypnosis is typically used in conjunction with modern medical approaches, as it is the rare cancer patient who can achieve complete symptom and side effect control during major medical and surgical procedures with hypnosis alone.
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The vast majority of cancer patients will undergo surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy (if not all three). Although these treatment approaches are medically necessary, they are accompanied by a wide spectrum of aversive side effects including pain, nausea, fatigue, anxiety, and depression – all of which negatively impact quality of life. Fortunately, hypnosis has shown promise in improving the patient experience of each of these treatments.
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Source: American Cancer Society, 2012
Hypnotherapy For Smoking Cessation Sees Strong Results
Hospitalized patients who smoke may be more likely to quit smoking through the use of hypnotherapy than patients using other smoking cessation methods. Smoking patients who participated in one hypnotherapy session were more likely to be non-smokers at 6 months compared with patients using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) alone or patients who quit "cold turkey."
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"Our results showed that hypnotherapy resulted in higher quit rates compared with NRT alone," said Faysal Hasan, MD, FCCP, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, MA. "Hypnotherapy appears to be quite effective and a good modality to incorporate into a smoking cessation program after hospital discharge."
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Source: American College of Chest Physicians, 2007
A randomized controlled trial of hypnosis for burn wound care (pain management)
There have been few randomized controlled studies on the effectiveness of clinical hypnotic analgesia. The authors' goal was to improve on previous methodologies and gain a better understanding of the effects of hypnosis on different components of pain in a clinical setting.
This study used a randomized controlled design in which the nurses and data collectors were unaware of treatment condition to compare hypnotic analgesia with an attention-only placebo for burn pain during wound debridements. Data were analyzed on a total of 46 adult participants.
The authors found that the group receiving hypnosis had a significant drop in pain compared with the control group when measured by the McGill Pain Questionnaire but not when measured by other pain rating scales.
The McGill Pain Questionnaire total score reflects multiple pain components, such as its affective component and various qualitative components, and is not merely a measure of pain intensity. Thus, the findings suggest that hypnosis affects multiple pain domains and that measures that assess these multiple domains may be more sensitive to the effects of hypnotic analgesia treatments.
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Source: Rehabilitation Psychology, 2007
Covert Sensitization Revisited Six Case Studies
This is an up-to-date study in which covert sensitization - a technique that seems to have gone into disrepute since the 1970s - is employed to treat a variety of maladaptive behaviours. The six case studies illustrate the value of covert sensitization for the treatment of alcoholism, nail tearing, cigarette smoking, cannabis smoking, overeating and chocolate addiction. The treatment focuses on the craving rather than the actual carrying out of the unwanted behaviour. This study shows that covert sensitization is a rapid and cost effective form of treatment: many patients are able to eliminate the unwanted behaviour in a small number of sessions.
This paper demonstrates the efficacy of covert sensitization and its ability to treat rapidly and successfiilly a wide variety of maladaptive behaviours.
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Source: British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis, 2005