Efficacy of Clinical Hypnosis in the Enhancement of Quality of Life of Terminally Ill Cancer Patients

The fact that terminal cancer patients experience considerable psychological distress is now undisputed, but the effectiveness of psychological treatments in relieving this suffering is less clear. The aim of the present research was to evaluate the efficacy of clinical hypnosis in the enhancement of quality of life of patients with far-advanced cancer. Fifty terminally ill cancer patients were randomly assigned to two groups: standard care and hypnosis. Patients in the standard care group received routine medical and psychological care. Their medical treatment included pharmacological management of pain and other symptoms following the World Health Organization’s model of palliative care (WHO, 1990). The psychological support consisted of supportive counselling based on the cognitive existential therapeutic tradition. In addition to the standard care, patients in the hypnosis group received weekly sessions of hypnosis with a therapist for four weeks. Outcome measures included quality of life, as measured by The Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (DeHaes, Olschewski, Fayers, Visser, Cull, Hopwood and Sanderman, 1996), and depression and anxiety, as measured by The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983). Results demonstrated that at the end of intervention patients in the hypnosis group had significantly better overall quality of life and lower levels of anxiety and depression when compared to the standard care group. It is concluded that hypnosis is effective in the enhancement of quality of life in terminally ill cancer patients.