Hypnosis Series: Research and Possibility with Hypnosis
First things first: If you haven’t checked out the first two parts of this series, you can find them here:
As I alluded to in my personal experience, the use of hypnosis has helped changed my life significantly for the better.
Based on research, here are some additional ways that hypnotherapy or hypnosis can make a difference in lives.
Please note that studies on the use of hypnotherapy are very limited, the studies I am sharing are for those interested in seeing the possibilities of what hypnosis can do in the medical field.
Depression
In a study on depression, cognitive behavioral therapy was used in conjunction with hypnotherapy. The result was a 6-8% higher reduction of symptoms than the group that only used CBT. These effects were maintained even at the 6 month and 12 month follow ups.
During a meta-analysis of hypnosis as an intervention for depressive symptoms, those who had hypnosis had more improvement than 76% of control participants.
Anxiety
During a meta-analysis on the effect of hypnosis on anxiety, participants receiving hypnosis reduced anxiety more than about 79% of control participants. It should be noted that hypnosis was more effective when used in conjunction with another treatment than as a stand alone treatment.
PTSD
Although there is little research on the study of hypnosis and PTSD, I did manage to find one study done on a group of children with PTSD done after the 2002 Bali Terrorist Attack. This study showed a 77% improvement rate in those treated with hypnosis compared to only 24% in the control group.
Sleeping Habits
A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that 58.3% of respondents reported better sleeping outcomes after the use of hypnosis.
Quitting Smoking
In one study on smokers that had just come out of the hospital, patients were given counseling, hypnotherapy, hypnotherapy with counseling, or nothing. The hypnotherapy and hypnotherapy with counseling groups were over 3x more likely than those who had just received counseling to abstain from smoking at the 26-week mark.
Acute and Chronic Pain
There was a review done on the efficacy of hypnosis with pain. Here is a quick review of the results:
It has been reported that hypnosis has great potential with burn associated pain when administered in the emergency room. It not only helped with initial pain, but also helped with wound dressings, as well as facilitated healing.
In labor with hypnosis, mothers reported better response to pain medications, shorter labor times, and an overall more pleasant experience.
In another study with migraines, the use of hypnotherapy helped reduce the number of headaches per month, the strength of the headache or migraine, and had a higher frequency of remission.
One study on the use of hypnosis with refractory fibromyalgia showed large improvements with muscle pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and distress scores.
Overall, the use of hypnosis compared to other psychological interventions was far superior with acute pain. The research suggested hypnosis was a little less effective, but still more effective, for the use of hypnosis for chronic pain.
Although the studies on hypnosis and hypnotherapy are limited, they without a doubt show a promising new area to fully discover in medicine.
Not only is hypnosis and hypnotherapy more cost effective than most treatments, increasing the number of people who have access to hypnotherapy as a form of treatment, but it also comes with little risk but a lot of potential reward.
Watch out for the next and final post in the series: Is Hypnosis Right For You?
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