George Pegios - Is hypnosis effective in relieving chronic pain?

Chronic pain affects more than 1.5 million people around the world.

For centuries, opioid pain relievers have been used to control both moderate and chronic pain, especially in cancer patients. However, it is not feasible in all cases.

Opioids are usually addictive; in addition, sometimes its efficiency fails and produce adverse effects such as: sleep disturbances; fatigue, vomiting, itching; anxiety and depression; endocrine changes; neurocognitive deficiency, and cardiovascular problems.

For the above reason, scientists have been in charge of finding new and efficient analgesic methods.

To achieve this, they collected information from previous studies. Data were obtained from six main databases to compare hypnotic inductions with control conditions, with no intervention on pain, threshold, and tolerance scores in experimental models.

There were 85 previous eligible studies that, in total, totaled 3,632 participants; Of these, 2,862 were treated with hypnosis, and 2,646 were placed in control groups.

The objective of the meta-analysis was to quantify the effectiveness of hypnosis in reducing pain and to identify the factors involved in its effectiveness.

Upon examination, analgesic effects of hypnosis were found for all pain outcomes.

According to the specialists, the efficacy was influenced by hypnotic suggestion and the use of direct analgesic suggestion.

There was optimal pain relief when hypnosis was accompanied by high and medium dose pain relievers.

These findings, the authors noted, suggest that hypnotic intervention can provide significant relief; It is also an effective, safe and less expensive alternative.

Despite this, they clarified that not all respond the same way to hypnosis; In addition, the tests analyzed measure pain in models, which rules out the physical and psychological aspects involved in chronic pain in people.

A Review of Hypnosis

hypnosis as a mental state or group of attitudes generated through a procedure called hypnotic induction.

This hypnotic induction is achieved through a set of procedures capable of creating a context in which compliance with some suggestions is facilitated in patients.

Hypnosis has been practiced for centuries by civilizations from different times and latitudes such as Egyptians, Greeks, Celts, Indians, Chinese, Incas, among others.

From neurosis to pain

In the last decades, hypnosis has been evaluated as an analgesic (hypnoanalgesia), to treat chronic pain derived from diseases.

That is why, while efforts to find ways to reduce pain effectively, less expensively, and invasively continue, hypnosis may be a capable and high-potential method of achieving it.