Hypnosis - What is Alternative Medicine?

In Beyond Biofeedback , Elmer Green and Alyce Green of the Menninger Clinic describe the case of a patient with a large and painful pelvic cancer the size of a grapefruit. The patient was hypnotized and asked to find the room in his brain that had the valves controlling the blood supply to his body and to turn off the valve that controlled the blood flow to his tumor. He did so, and during the two month-session, the tumor shrank to one-fourth its former size.

Hypnotherapy has proven effective in treating both psychological and physical disorders. In perhaps the most interesting study, conducted by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, hemophiliacs under hypnosis were able reduce their need for blood transfusions, significantly reducing their exposure to the AIDS virus and lowering their risk of liver and kidney damage. Self-hypnosis apparently provided the hemophiliacs with increased feelings of control and confidence and improved the quality of their lives.

Maurice Tinterow, an anesthesiologist at the Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning in Wichita, Kansas, has successfully employed hypnotherapy to control pain for conditions that include headaches, facial neuralgia, sciatica, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, whiplash, menstrual pain, and tennis elbow. He has also used hypnotherapy in place of anesthesia in a variety of surgical operations, including hernias, hysterectomies, breast biopsies, hemorrhoidectomies, cesarean sections, and for the treatment of second- and third-degree burns.

Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) studies, according to Fugh-Berman, show that hypnosis has also proven effective in relieving chronic back pain, ulcers, and morning sickness. In one study, 32 patients with high hypnotizability recovered faster from cardiac surgery after being treated with formal hypnosis. Psychiatrists have also used hypnosis to treat diseases that manifest as behavioral compulsions, such as phobias and eating disorders, and to help patients remember and deal with traumatic events. In most cases, patients learn self-hypnosis, which they can then apply themselves if the problem resurfaces.

Hypnosis has also been used to help patients with eating disorders, and several studies have shown that it is an effective therapy for weight loss. In a controlled study reported in Alternative Medicine: What Works , obese patients received either hypnosis, hypnosis plus an audiotape, or certain amount of attention. Both hypnosis groups lost an average of 17 pounds in six months, while the control group gained a half pound. In another study, 45 obese subjects who received hypnosis with specific food aversion suggestions lost an average of 14 lbs (6.4 kg). Those who received hypnosis but not the food aversion suggestions lost 7.5 lbs (3.4 kg), while those who received no hypnosis lost only 2.8 lbs (1.3 kg).

Alternative Medicine: What Works cites another trial in which 12 asthmatic subjects who were highly susceptible to hypnosis had improved symptoms, decreased use of medications, and dramatically decreased response to methacholine (a substance that usually worsens asthma), as compared both to the 17 controls and to 10 other subjects who also were hypnotized but whose susceptibility to it were low.

Another larger, controlled trial of 252 asthmatics found that progressive relaxation therapy and hypnosis both reduced symptoms, but hypnosis was more effective. Independent assessment found 59% of the hypnosis group “much better” compared to 43% of the relaxation group (a statistically significant difference). Another controlled trial of 62 asthmatics found that hypnosis reduced both the use of drugs and the number of days on which wheezing occurred.

Hypnotherapists are not regulated or licensed by the federal government or by state agencies. It is therefore important to find someone who is licensed by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, whose members include medical doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and social workers.