Abstract
Hypnosis and Medicine: An Historical Examination
Highlights
The researchers suggested that hypnosis and hypnotic analgesia had been underutilised as treatments for clinical conditions
This review found support to indicate that hypnosis produced significant decreases in pain
Jensen & Patterson [4], in a separate review of the literature, found a significant body of studies demonstrating the superior nature of hypnosis to medication management, physical therapy and education for the treatment of found a significant body of studies demonstrating the superior nature of hypnosis to medication management, physical therapy and education for the treatment of chronic pain and stated that it could be argued that each of the alternative treatments presumably enlisted patient expectancy
Summary
While the uses of hypnosis are ubiquitous, and hypnosis can arguably be traced back to the sleep temples utilised by the Greeks and Egyptians over 4000 years ago, academic research in the area of hypnosis as an intervention for chronic pain is relatively recent. Hypnosis has a long history of reducing emotional distress and pain [7]. Psychological factors are accepted as playing a role in the treatment of migraine, for example, with emotional distress. Čeko & Low [9], commented on how emotions can affect behaviour, and stated that what makes pain “pain” is ‘usually the affective component of the experience - that is, how unpleasant it is. It is the unpleasantness that motivates the individual to engage in a behaviour, whether it is to flee, fight or freeze. It is the unpleasantness that motivates the individual to engage in a behaviour, whether it is to flee, fight or freeze. (p.503)’
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