Hypnosis and Relaxation in the Medically Ill

Abstract

Interest in the application of hypnotic techniques for patients with medical disorders seems to rise and fall over the years. Enthusiasm for this work comes both from patients and clinicians. Often, however, these techniques are offered without regard to the psychological theories that should inform their operation and the limits that clinical and experimental research suggest. This article offers a brief description of the elements of hypnosis and a review of the history of the use of hypnotic techniques with a variety of medical problems including asthma, habits such as cigarette smoking and medical symptoms such as persistent nausea and vomiting. Special attention is placed on the psychological and physiological principles that help to establish the valid use of this technique.

Psychosomatic Medicine: Emerging Trends and Perspectives

“…Psychiatric disorders in the medically ill may, however, require treatment strategies that are different from those endorsed in clinical psychiatry. Use of psychotherapeutic strategies (cognitive-behavioral therapy, stress management procedures, brief dynamic therapy) in controlled investigations has yielded a substantial improvement either in quality of life and/or in coping and/or in the course of disease in a number of medical disorders, as listed in table 5 [139, 142, 143, 144, 145]. Examples of these strategies are concerned with interventions that increase social support and enhance coping in patients with breast cancer [84], lymphomas [146]and malignant melanoma [147]; treatment of depression by cognitive behavioral therapy in type 2 diabetes mellitus [148], and cognitive behavioral management for noncardiac chest pain [149].…”

Differential effectiveness of psychological interventions for reducing osteoarthritis pain: a comparison of Erickson hypnosis and Jacobson relaxation

“…In addition to numerous case reports indicating the effectiveness of hypnosis in pain relief(e.g. Barber et al ., 1996; Covino and Frankel, 1998; Chaves, 1999), several controlled clinical trials have been conducted using hypnosis for pain control. Clinical studies in dentistry (Stam et al ., 1984; Enqvist and Fisher, 1997), burn treatment (Wakeman and Kaplan, 1978; Patterson et al ., 1989, 1992; Patterson and Ptacek, 1997), surgery (Lambert, 1996; Faymonville et al ., 1997; Mauer et al ., 1999) and radiology (Lang et al ., 1996) have indicated that this technique is effective in both acute and chronic pain.…”

Immune Effects of Relaxation during Chemotherapy for Ovarian Cancer

“…Many behavioral techniques have been applied to treat a variety of somatic disorders [1,2]. One such technique, relaxation training, affects human physiology and immu nity [3], This is probably the psychological intervention, stress protocols excluded, which has most frequently been shown to influence aspects of human immunity.…”