Hypnosis for Chronic Pain

There is a growing acceptance that using hypnosis for chronic pain can constitute a hugely beneficial practice. For example, you can view this literature review conducted by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine found hypnotherapy to be consistently capable of delivering moderate to large reductions in pain. Moreover, results from imaging studies illustrate that the use of hypnotherapy is linked with decreased activity in the brain centers responsible both for controlling pain intensity and for shaping negative perceptions of pain.

The hypnotherapeutic process for treating chronic pain focuses on two separate, but complementary, strands. Firstly, it promotes mental ease and relaxation with the goal of alleviating discomfort and stress. And, secondly, the process looks to boost a patient’s ability to cope with the symptoms.

Can Hypnosis Deliver Results?

Research conducted by the University of Utah found that 29% of patients treated using hypnotherapy experienced immediate pain relief. Another study found that 50% of patients with chronic lower back pain experienced significant reductions in pain intensity when treated with hypnotherapy.

Results from a study by the University of Greenwich suggest that although some patients are more responsive to hypnosis than others that therapeutic benefits nevertheless exist across groups. Expressly, their findings detailed that pain levels fell by over 40% for patients who were described as being highly responsive to hypnosis and by 29% for those who were considered as only moderately responsive.

Hypnosis and Other Treatments

Hypnotherapy can be used in conjunction with other therapeutic approaches to deliver improved outcomes for patients with chronic pain. For example, when treating chronic lower back pain, a combination of hypnotherapy and pain education was found to have a greater analgesic effect than pain education alone. Evidence indicates that hypnotherapy can be considered as a valuable form of adjuvant therapy for cancer patients. The use of hypnotherapy in addition to significantly decreasing pain and anxiety has also been shown to reduce the need for future pharmacological treatment.

Positives of Hypnosis

The majority of hypnotherapy patients report a range of positive effects including improvements in sleep patterns, overall well-being, and in their sense of control. In cases where patients are suffering from the debilitating effects of chronic migraines, the use of hypnotherapy is linked to reductions in anxiety and depression.

Another positive associated with hypnotherapy is its relative affordability. Since listening to an audio recording can deliver therapeutic effects similar to those experienced by patients who visit a hypnotherapist in person, hypnotherapy can represent a very cost-effective option to treat chronic pain.

The use of hypnosis for chronic pain has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of conditions spanning from fibromyalgia to carcinoma-related pain. As a result, it must be considered as a practicable means of combating a condition which is affecting an increasing number of people worldwide.