The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis
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Int J Clin Exp Hypn · Jan 1998
Hypnotic analgesia: 1. Somatosensory event-related potential changes to noxious stimuli and 2. Transfer learning to reduce chronic low back pain.
Fifteen adults with chronic low back pain (M = 4 years), age 18 to 43 years (M = 29 years), participated. All but one were moderately to highly hypnotizable (M = 7.87; modified 11-point Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C [Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1962]), and significantly reduced pain perception following hypnotic analgesia instructions during cold-pressor pain training. In Part 1, somatosensory event-related potential correlates of noxious electrical stimulation were evaluated during attend and hypnotic analgesia (HA) conditions at anterior frontal (Fp1, Fp2), midfrontal (F3, F4), central (C3, C4), and parietal (P3, P4) regions. ⋯ Over three experimental sessions, participants reported chronic pain reduction, increased psychological well-being, and increased sleep quality. The development of "neurosignatures of pain" can influence subsequent pain experiences (Coderre, Katz, Vaccarino, & Melzack, 1993; Melzack, 1993) and may be expanded in size and easily reactivated (Flor & Birbaumer, 1994; Melzack, 1991, 1993). Therefore, hypnosis and other psychological interventions need to be introduced early as adjuncts in medical treatments for onset pain before the development of chronic pain.
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Int J Clin Exp Hypn · Jan 1998
Case ReportsHypnotic pain control: some theoretical and practical issues.
Pain management programs assist patients to use their behavioral and cognitive skills for the purpose of rendering their experience of pain as more tolerable in some way. Hypnotic procedures may be included in this perspective. Thus, hypnosis may be best conceived as a set of skills to be deployed by the individual rather than as a state. ⋯ In this article, the authors present a minimal and atheoretical definition of hypnosis, and they list the basic properties of hypnosis that may be used in the treatment of pain. For a number of reasons, it is suggested that undertaking hypnosis as though the individual were indeed being placed into a special trance state may in some cases promote an effective outcome. However, it should be acknowledged that there may be instances when the relevant skills may be more effectively engaged at the expense of a strict special trance state by targeting the specific skills that are to be used for therapeutic benefit.