Evaluation of hypnotherapy in pain management of cancer patients: A clinical trial from India

Abstract

Context: In the present era, cancer is one of the major growing diseases in human beings. People with cancer often experience a lot of problems ranging from psychological impairments to pain, fatigue, and sleep disorders. Pain is closely associated with all types of cancer. Cancer patients feel intense pain in the affected organ not only because of cancer but also because of the medical treatment procedure. Aim: The present study aimed at exploring the efficacy of hypnotherapy in mollifying the pain in persons with cancer. Settings and Design: This study was systematically planned through before and after control group design with matching; a quasi-experimental research design. Subjects and Methods: The present study was carried out by taking a total of 57 cancer patients as per inclusion/exclusion criteria from Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, through convenience sampling method. Out of these 57 participants, the experimental group consisted of thirty participants who were given intervention in the form of 15 sessions of hypnotherapy along with medical treatments. The control group consisted of another 27 participants who were administered medical treatments alone. Participants were given Numerical Rating Scale for a rating of pain in cancer patients. Statistical Analysis Used: Independent samples t -test and Eta-squared statistics were used to analyze the mean difference between experimental group and control group on pain and computing the magnitude of the effect of intervention, respectively. Results: The directional hypothesis was accepted P d was estimated at 0.38 which indicates a large effect of the intervention on pain. Conclusions: The finding of the present study indicates that hypnotherapeutic interventions are effective in the management of pain in individuals with cancer.