International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis最新文献

The feasibility of hypnotherapy interventions for lowering blood pressure and psychological stress in hypertensive patients was investigated in a pilot study. The research objective was to determine the effect of audio hypnotherapy on blood pressure, stress levels, and heart rate in primary hypertension patients. The study randomized 64 hypertensive patients to the intervention or usual care. The intervention group received hypnotherapy through audio recordings for 15 minutes, while the control group took a rest for about 15 minutes. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured with digital tensimeter and stress levels with the Subjective Units of Distress Scale. Data analysis used Kruskal Wallis Test. The results showed a significant difference between the intervention and control groups with p value < .001 for decreasing in systolic blood pressure and p value < .001 for decreasing in stress levels. This pilot study suggests that a hypnotherapy intervention may be feasible and of benefit in a clinical population of hypertensive patients, however further study is needed.

The objective of this study was to carry out a detailed mapping of the different personal positions of French nurses concerning the practice of hypnotherapy. Factorial design was used to assess the impact of 4 situational factors: type of postoperative care and degree of pain associated with it (chemotherapy, wound cleansing and bandaging, or body grooming that leads to pain on mobilization); whether paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) was administrated along with hypnosis or not; professional credentials of the hypnotherapist; and patient's identity (adult, young person, elderly person, or young person with learning difficulties). A combination of scenario technique and cluster analysis was implemented. Participants were 91 registered nurses and, for comparison, 19 nurse's aides, 9 physicians, 5 psychologists, and 77 laypersons. Seven qualitatively different positions were found. Only a minority of French nurses were convinced that hypnotherapy is an indisputably acceptable practice in postoperative care. Most of them were indifferent to the issue as long as pain medication was used. Nurses' views appeared to be similar to physicians' views.

The analysis of the methods sections of 66 normalization tests of hypnotizability scales reveals that out of 33,338 subjects, 58.57% were college and university students, and the majority of these were students of psychology. Of all subjects, 7.45% were younger school children, 27.63% were patients treated with hypnosis, and out of these, 85.26% were patients of 1 single therapist. Only 0.51% were trainees of dental or nursing schools, 0.13% were prisoners, and 5.71% were other adults. These figures suggest a sample-selection bias. As 83.08% of these subjects were told beforehand that they were to undergo a hypnosis study, a self-selection bias is also implied in the data. It can be presumed that those interested in hypnosis participated, whereas others who had no interest in hypnosis may have refrained. It is concluded that some of the published norms of hypnotizability tests may not be adequately representative of the general population. Many hypnosis studies, whether clinical or experimental, which are based on hypnotizability, may be afflicted by these biases.

This issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH) further expands our understanding of hypnosis and use in health care. Results from a randomized clinical trial on the efficacy of a hypnosis intervention to reduce pain and improve quality of life in patients undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer provides encouraging support for the integration of hypnosis in health care. Additionally, research on the feasibility of a brief hypnosis intervention delivered via audio recording for stress reduction and effect on hypertension is presented. However, more needs to be done to educate health care providers, including nurses, on the benefits of clinical hypnosis in patient care. Hypnotizability and scales that may be associated with response to hypnosis interventions are also an important area of research. Additional articles examine the Thought Impact Scale; dispositional self-consciousness; and hypnotizability. Taken together these articles provide important findings on clinical hypnosis research.

The abeyance of self-consciousness (SC) during hypnosis has been discussed as a central aspect of hypnosis, yet dispositional SC has been very rarely evaluated as a correlate of hypnotizability. In this study (N = 328), the authors administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS), the Inventory Scale of Hypnotic Depth (ISHD), and the Self-Consciousness Scale-Revised (SCS-R). Women tended to score higher than men on the HGSHS, besides experiencing greater ISHD automaticity. The Discontinuity (with everyday experiences) subscale of the ISHD correlated with the Public Self-Consciousness scale of the SCS-R and with the Private Self-Consciousness subscale (using simple, quadratic, and cubic regressions). Being concerned about the perception of others related to experiencing hypnosis as discontinuous with everyday life, which also related to being more introspective and interested in subjectivity at the middle range of scores. The article concludes with suggestions on how to pursue the implications of these results, including testing for nonlinear relations.

Previous research has indicated that high Thought Impact Scale (TIS) scores are associated with greater therapeutic response to hypnosis treatment and greater tendency to seek such treatment. This study aimed to confirm those findings in a new population-based subject sample and also evaluate hypothesized associations of TIS scores with several hypnotic phenomena. An internet survey of 1,500 U.S. adults identified 80 individuals who had undergone hypnosis treatment. As previously found, high TIS scorers were much more likely than low scorers (median-split) to have undergone hypnosis treatment (7.2% vs. 3.2%, p < .0001), but, in contrast with prior findings, high TIS scorers did not report a significantly higher rate of moderate or greater improvement from hypnosis treatment (58.6% vs. 40.9%, p = .12). TIS scores were positively correlated with greater imagery vividness, sense of automaticity, and altered body perception during hypnosis.

Surgical procedures for breast cancer treatment are commonly followed by pain. Clinical hypnosis has been shown to be effective in reducing pain during and after surgery, but most of the studies have used analogical scales, which only measure pain intensity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of clinical hypnosis on pain intensity and its interference in daily activities in patients before and after mastectomy. The patients were evaluated using the Brief Pain Inventory. Forty patients were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group and evaluated 5 times: 1) baseline, 2) after clinical hypnosis session, 3) before surgery, 4) 1 day after surgery, and 5) 1 week after the surgery (follow-up). The results showed that after surgery the hypnosis group had a statistically significant reduction in pain intensity, less interference of pain with daily activities, sleep and life enjoyment compared with a control group. Clinical hypnosis may be recommended as a complementary treatment procedure for postmastectomy pain reduction and improving the quality of life of these patients.

A novel, audio-based brief mindful hypnosis (BMH) intervention for reducing stress-reactivity during the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was investigated. Fifty-five college-aged participants with elevated stress were randomized to BMH or a cognitive training (CT) active-control condition. Participants received a BMH or CT session and downloaded the audio-recorded intervention for daily home practice. Approximately 1 week later, participants received their second BMH or CT session and then completed the TSST. Results indicated BMH produced significant and medium effects in reducing stress reactivity and weekly stress and increasing mindfulness, with large increases in immediate relaxation compared to the CT active control. BMH demonstrated excellent adherence and was rated highly regarding satisfaction, ease of practice, perceived benefit, and likelihood of future use. This study provides the first empirical support that BMH is superior to an active-control intervention for reducing stress reactivity while significantly increasing mindfulness and relaxation.