Posted: April 29th, 2018

The efficacy of hypnosis and its clinical use

The efficacy of hypnosis and its clinical use

Hypnosis is a psychological intervention that involves inducing a state of focused attention, enhanced suggestibility, and altered consciousness. Hypnosis can be used for various purposes, such as enhancing therapeutic outcomes, modifying behaviors, or facilitating relaxation and coping. Hypnosis can also be combined with other psychological or medical treatments to increase their efficacy or efficiency.

Hypnosis has been extensively researched and has shown to have empirical evidence for its efficacy in certain clinical applications, especially pain management and other medical conditions. According to a recent guideline for the assessment of efficacy of clinical hypnosis applications developed by a task force of six major hypnosis organizations, hypnosis is considered to be an efficacious and well-established treatment for acute and chronic pain, postoperative pain, procedural pain, headache, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and cancer-related pain (Kekecs et al., 2022). Hypnosis is also considered to be a probably efficacious treatment for depression, anxiety, certain sleep disorders, smoking cessation, obesity, asthma, and enuresis in children (Kekecs et al., 2022). Moreover, hypnosis has been found to reduce distress and duration of invasive medical procedures for children (Butler et al., 2005), to improve posttraumatic stress symptoms in acute stress disorder (Bryant et al., 2005), and to enhance immune function in patients with HIV (Antoni et al., 2000).

Hypnosis can be delivered in different formats, such as individual or group sessions, self-hypnosis, or audio recordings. The effectiveness of hypnosis may depend on several factors, such as the characteristics of the patient, the hypnotist, the hypnotic procedure, and the outcome measure. Hypnosis is generally considered to be a safe and ethical intervention, as long as it is performed by a qualified and competent professional who adheres to the ethical standards and guidelines of the relevant hypnosis organizations.

In conclusion, hypnosis is a valuable clinical intervention that can help improve the quality of life in patients with various psychological and medical problems. Hypnosis can also enhance the outcomes of other treatments when used as an adjunctive intervention. However, more research is needed to establish the efficacy of hypnosis for other conditions and to identify the optimal methods and mechanisms of hypnotic interventions.

References

Antoni, M. H., Lutgendorf, S. K., Blomberg, B., Carver, C. S., Lechner, S., Diaz, A., … & Fletcher, M. A. (2000). Cognitive-behavioral stress management intervention decreases the prevalence of depression and enhances benefit finding among women under treatment for early-stage breast cancer. Health Psychology, 19(1), 20-32.

Bryant, R. A., Moulds, M. L., Nixon, R. D., Mastrodomenico, J., Felmingham, K., & Hopwood, S. (2005). Hypnotherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy of acute stress disorder: A 3-year follow-up. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(9), 1331-1335.

Butler, L. D., Symons, B. K., Henderson, S. L., Shortliffe, L. D., & Spiegel, D. (2005). Hypnosis reduces distress and duration of an invasive medical procedure for children. Pediatrics,
115(1), e77-e85.

Kekecs Z., Moss D., Elkins G., De Benedittis G., Palsson O.S., Shenefelt P.D., Terhune B.D.,
Varga K., Whorwell P.J.(2022). help write my essay on Guidelines for the Assessment of Efficacy of Clinical Hypnosis Applications. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2022.2049446

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