Differential effects of hypnotic suggestion on multiple dimensions of pain

Abstract

Within the framework of multidimensional pain assessment, this study extended an earlier finding that hypnotic analgesia and relaxation suggestions have differential effects on pain reduction by evaluating these strategies in subjects undergoing a cold pressor protocol. Thirty-two highly susceptible subjects were randomly assigned to an analgesia or a relaxation suggestion treatment group. Six pain reports were taken at 10-sec intervals for each experimental condition. The baseline measures served as covariates. A 2 x 2 x 2 x 6 repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed a significant group (analgesia, relaxation) by pain dimension (intensity, unpleasantness), by condition (suggestion alone, hypnotic induction plus suggestion) interaction. Analysis of the simple-simple main effects, holding both group and condition constant, revealed that application of hypnotic analgesia reduced report of pain intensity significantly more than report of pain unpleasantness. Conversely, hypnotic relaxation reduced pain unpleasantness more than intensity. The clinical implications of the study are discussed.

Effect of hypnotic suggestion on fibromyalgic pain: Comparison between hypnosis and relaxation

“…Stacher et al (1975) also indicate that hypnosis plus suggestions of analgesia decreases the intensity of pain to a greater extent than hypnosis plus suggestions of relaxation, although they only measured the intensity of the pain to determine the effect of the changes produced. Dahlgren et al (1995) conclude, as we do, that analgesic hypnosis reduces the intensity of pain to a greater extent than the affective dimension, whereas relaxing hypnosis reduces the affective component to a greater extent than the intensity.…”

“…The changes in pain intensity and in the sensorial components of pain were greatest with the suggestion of focused analgesia. This result shows that the content of the suggestion is important and indicates that some suggestions are more effective than others at controlling pain (Sachs, 1970; Stacher et al, 1975; Dahlgren et al, 1995; De Pascalis et al, 1999; Rainville et al, 1999).…”

Understanding the multidimensional mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia

“…This dissociative effect seems positively correlated with hypnotic susceptibility (De Benedittis et al, 1989;Dahlgren et al, 1995;Rainville et al, 2000).…”

“…Until very recently, hypnotic analgesia studies have shown that susceptibility to hypnosis is more closely associated with reductions in pain sensation intensity than reductions in pain affect (Price and Barber, 1987;De Benedittis et al, 1989;Hilgard and Hilgard, 1994;Dahlgren et al, 1995;Rainville et al, 2000). It makes sense that the reduction in stronger pains requires more hypnotic ability than the reduction in weaker pains.…”

“…There is a common consensus among hypnosis research groups that hypnotic analgesia is the most reliable of the hypnotic phenomena and that highly hypnotizable subjects are able to reduce pain perception following hypnotic analgesia more than do low hypnotizables (Brown and Fromm, 1986;De Benedittis et al, 1989;Crawford, Gur, Skolnick, Gur and Benson, 1993b;Hilgard and Hilgard, 1994;Zachariae and Bjerring, 1994;Dahlgren, Kurtz, Strube and Malone, 1995;Kiernan, Dane, Phillips and Price, 1995;De Pascalis and Perrone, 1996;Holroyd, 1996;Chaves and Dworkin, 1997;De Pascalis, Magurano and Bellusci, 1999;Lynn et al 2000;Montgomery et al, 2000;De Benedittis, 2002).…”