This exploratory, descriptive study, done retrospectively from perinatal medical records, compared childbirth outcomes in one obstetrician's caseload between 50 women who elected antepartal hypnosis preparation (usually a 5-class series) and 51 who did not. The groups were demographically similar. To achieve similar numbers to the hypnosis group, the control group was randomly selected from the...

Hypnosis research binds phenomenology and neuroscience. Here we show how recent evidence probing the impact of hypnosis and suggestion can inform and advance a neurophenomenological approach. In contrast to meditative practices that involve lengthy and intensive training, hypnosis induces profound alterations in subjective experience following just a few words of suggestion. Individuals highly ...

This paper attempts to understand the relationship between the clinical efficacy of hypnosis and its negative perception among many medical educators, practitioners and the general public. By exploring the history of hypnosis, an attempt was made to point out several events that may have led to both the past and current misperception of hypnosis which the author believes have caused hypnosis to...

On the bases of Hilgard's neodissociation theory and Spano's (1982) sociocognitive theory, volunteers stringently selected for high (N = 10) and low (N = 10) hypnotizability were exposed to a cold pressor pain test during counterbalanced conditions of waking relaxation, distraction, and hypnosis. To better discriminate between hypnosis and distraction conditions, a new distraction procedure was...

In a 3rd meta-analysis of the effect of adding hypnosis to cognitive-behavioral treatments for weight reduction, additional data were obtained from authors of 2 studies, and computational inaccuracies in both previous meta-analyses were corrected. Averaged across posttreatment and follow-up assessment periods, the mean weight loss was 6.00 lbs. (2.72 kg) without hypnosis and 11.83 lbs. (5.37 kg...

This issue of the Journal focuses on medical applications of hypnosis. The contributed articles describe a spectrum of clinical hypnosis in the primary care fields of obstetrics (VandeVusse, Irland, Berner, Fuller, & Adams, 2007) and pediatrics (Berberich, 2007), as well as the specialty fields of dermatology (Shenefelt, 2007), immunology (Torem, 2007), and pediatric pulmonology (Anbar, 2007). ...

Clinical hypnosis is a mind-body technique that operates at the intersection of subjective perceptions and objective physiological changes. A fundamental problem with hypnosis research is that the subjective mental state of patients during hypnosis cannot be measured directly. Experimental paradigms that neglect to measure changes in mental state at best yield a correlation between the treatmen...

Hypnosis treatment often improves irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but the costs and reliance on specialized therapists limit its availability. A 3-month home-treatment version of a scripted hypnosis protocol previously shown to improve all central IBS symptoms was completed by 19 IBS patients. Outcomes were compared to those of 57 matched IBS patients from a separate study receiving only standa...

Evidence suggests that hypnosis is an effective intervention for reducing distress, pain and other side effects associated with cancer and its treatment. However, hypnosis has failed to be adopted into standard clinical practice. This study (n = 115) investigated overall intentions to use hypnosis to control side effects of cancer and its treatment, as well as demographic predictors of such int...

BACKGROUND Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is common and results in significant costs to individuals, families and society. Although some research supports the efficacy of hypnosis for CLBP, we know little about the minimum dose needed to produce meaningful benefits, the roles of home practice and hypnotizability on outcome, or the maintenance of treatment benefits beyond 3 months. METHODS One h...