Efficacy of hypnosis in the management of non-procedural pain: systematic review

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain has great impact on public health and presents a social cost which transcends the financial aspect. Hypnosis is a focal, quick and low-cost resource with effective change possibilities in pain management. The objective of this study was to identify evidence of the efficiency of hypnosis in pain management. CONTENTS: This study consists of a systematic literature review held in February 2020. Search was carried out in the Pubmed, Cochrane, LILACS, Scielo and PsycInfo platforms, using the keywords "clinical trials", "hypnosis", "pain management", "pain intensity", and "quality of life", totalizing 18 studies after peer review. Most articles are randomized, controlled by comparing hypnosis to standard treatment or other integrative practices, and focus mainly on the aspects of intensity, quality and interference of pain as an outcome variable. Six studies mention quality of life and only two refer catastrophization as an important intervening variable. CONCLUSION: Hypnosis is an effective technique for pain management, considering that there was an improvement in pain management with the improvement of at least one aspect, be it intensity, interference or quality of pain. However, it's necessary to highlight important limitations of the studies, such as the small sample size and the complexity of systematizing subjective techniques, which highlights the need for more clinical trials, including multicentric studies, so that larger samples can be obtained.

Integrative and complementary practices in dentistry: acupuncture in temporomandibular disorders

“…A dental example of a complementary medicine procedure is using aromatherapy before, during or after dental procedures (Pasupuleti & Hassan, 2022). An example of an alternative medicine procedure is using hypnosis instead of drugs or medication for pain/anxiety control (Machado, et al, 2021;Pasupuleti & Hassan, 2022).…”