Chronic pain affects more than 1.5 billion people around the world. Doctors often prescribe opioid medications to treat this type of pain; however, these drugs are expensive and, of course, highly addictive.
As the opioid crisis unfolds, scientists are increasingly focused on finding alternative ways to combat pain.
Recently, a team of researchers from the University of Greenwich in London (United Kingdom) evaluated whether hypnosis could be useful against certain types of pain. To do this, they collated and analyzed 85 existing studies. Bottom Line: Hypnosis has no side effects and could be a viable, safe, and profitable option. The results have been published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
Hypnosis and pain
Over the years, several studies and reviews have evaluated hypnosis as a pain reliever; sometimes researchers refer to this as hypnoanalgesia. For example, a 2016 review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews looked at pain during labor.
The authors concluded that “hypnosis may reduce the overall use of analgesia during labor, but not epidural use.” The authors also explain that “more research is needed in the form of large, well-designed randomized controlled trials.
Since 2000, interest in hypnoanalgesia has grown and the number of new studies has grown exponentially. In total, the latest analysis includes 85 studies.
All studies used experimental models of pain, such as extreme cold, shock, pressure, exercise, and laser. Also, all the studies compared the benefits of hypnosis with no treatment (rather than testing it with a placebo or a drug), and all recruited healthy adults. The researchers only collected studies that used a quantitative assessment of pain, for example, the use of a 10-point scale. Overall, the analysis included 3,632 participants.
Sensitivity to hypnosis
Because not everyone succumbs to hypnosis to the same extent, the review also took into account the level of susceptibility of each participant.
Once the analysis was completed, the results leaned in favor of hypnosis as a potentially useful pain reliever.
“This is by far the largest review of its kind, examining the effects of hypnosis in over 3,500 people, and it presents very compelling evidence. About 15% of the population is very receptive to hypnosis, and those people saw a drop of more than 40% in pain, “explains Trevor Thompson, leader of the work.
It wasn’t just the people most susceptible to hypnosis who saw the benefits. Most people are moderately suggestible and experienced a 29% reduction in pain.
The authors also note that evidence indicates that hypnotic suggestion can be increased in a variety of ways, including training and practice, non-invasive brain stimulation, and by pharmacological agents, such as nitrous oxide.
“Based on these findings, most people would experience a decrease in pain of around 30% or more, which is generally considered clinically significant pain relief ,” says Thompson.
Interestingly, the analysis also revealed that the effect size was similar whether the person underwent hypnosis in person or via an audio recording.
If hypnosis can really achieve these levels of analgesia, it could be a major change. “Our findings suggest that hypnosis could be a safe and effective alternative. It can be administered quickly, inexpensively and easily at home with a 20-minute audio recording, ” continues the expert.
The researchers plan to continue their immersion in hypnoanalgesia, specifically looking at chronic complaints, such as low back pain. Currently, however, there are insufficient data available to reach definitive conclusions.
Study limitations
The authors point to certain limitations to the current analysis. In the first place, it is not possible to compare models of pain with chronic pain, which can have very different physical and psychological aspects.
Overall, the pain inductions that the researchers used in the studies produced a brief experience of pain. This analysis was unable to determine how the efficacy of hypnosis might change over longer periods of time, such as in chronic conditions.
Another concern of the authors is that the average age of the participants was relatively young, around 24 years. The authors wonder if older populations could see the same level of effect.
Although using hypnosis to subside pain seems too good to be true, it is worth delving into it extensively.
Referencia: The effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 controlled experimental trials. Thompson, Terhune, Oram, Sharangparni, Rouf, Solmi, Veronese, Stubbs. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 2019 DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.02.013. Epub 2019 Feb 18.
