Interest in using hypnosis for pain management has increased with recent evidence that hypnosis can reduce pain (and costs) associated with medical procedures. There are now enough and recognised, controlled studies of hypnosis, to draw meaningful conclusions from the literature regarding its use and its effectiveness in the management of chronic pain.
Pain should never be treated for its own sake, but if the underlying cause is known and your doctor gives permission, hypnosis can be very effective tool in relieving pain.
Hypnotherapy is used in a variety of situations for treating pain, including the following:
Hypnosis in the treatment of chronic pain generally, but not always, involves a hypnotic induction with suggestions for relaxation and comfort.
Very often the focus of hypnosis in the treatment of chronic pain also often involves teaching the patient self-hypnosis or providing tape recordings of hypnosis sessions. These can then be used to reduce pain on a daily basis, outside of sessions. Some patients experience an immediate reduction in pain severity following hypnosis treatment, whereas others can obtain reduction in pain with repeated practice of self-hypnosis or hypnosis sessions.
Additionally, posthypnotic suggestions may also be given to suggest reduced pain when with the Hypnotherapist. This suggestion is designed to continue beyond the session. In the case of pain management the patient can be taught to quickly and easily create a state of comfort using what is known as a trigger or cue, e.g. taking a deep breath and exhaling as their eyes close.
I hope this has helped you in your understanding of managing pain using Hypnotherapy. However, I have put up a couple of articles for you to read. You can see what others say about the use of Hypnotherapy in the management of pain. The first is from another Hypnotherapist and then from the University of IOWA:
The Role of Hypnotherapy In Chronic Pain Management
August 27th, 2013 by Sally Reeve Hypnotherapist BSc (Hons) ASHMPH GHR GQHP
Acute pain is usually defined as pain characterised by its sudden onset and short duration. Chronic pain is pain that persists for several months, years, or in some cases, pain that can last a lifetime. It is a complex, debilitating and life changing condition.
Estimates vary, but it is thought that the number of chronic pain sufferers in the UK runs into the millions, at great cost to the economy in terms of days lost at work, an increased reliance on state benefits, and the substantial financial burden on the NHS. However, the personal toll on the individual chronic pain sufferer is even more difficult to quantify. Depression, lack of self worth, lack of confidence, a breakdown in relationships, a sense of hopelessness and increasing social isolation may lead to many chronic pain sufferers turning to complementary practitioners in a bid to ease their pain.
Conventional medical treatments for chronic pain are often protracted and multi-disciplinary and may include powerful medication, physiotherapy, surgery and talking therapies. For some chronic pain sufferers, a combination of mainstream medical treatments may result in an alleviation of their pain, but what alternatives are there for those for whom nothing else seems to work? Is hypnotherapy of use in the management of chronic pain?
It is essential that anyone considering consulting a hypnotherapist for support in managing their chronic pain condition should already have a formal diagnosis from a qualified medical practitioner. Pain is the body’s signal that something is wrong, and the causes of chronic pain should be thoroughly investigated before the hypnotherapist is consulted.
The hypnotherapist may ask the chronic pain client to rate their pain on a Pain Scale so that their experience of pain can be recorded from one therapy session to the next, to measure progress. Pain Scales are invaluable because the experience of pain is very subjective. The way the brain perceives and interprets pain signals may vary from person to person so that what might be unbearable for one client might be tolerable in another. Clients can be taught self hypnosis techniques as part of the hypnotherapy sessions so that they can practise at home, often with the support of a personalised CD. Hypnotherapy techniques used in pain management hypnotherapy sessions often include some form of progressive relaxation induction, distraction techniques, the use of visualisations of the pain itself, together with post hypnotic suggestions and cues for increased control over the chronic pain, and a focus on recovery and wellness. The progressive relaxation induction technique, in itself, may be of benefit to the chronic pain client as many clients describe their pain as being worse when they are stressed and their muscles are tensed up. Also, many chronic pain clients find the progressive relaxation technique easy to learn, so can leave the hypnotherapy session feeling that they already have a tool to help them manage their pain. This is an essential part of pain management and hypnotherapy. Clients need to feel that they will be able to learn to manage their pain outside of the hypnotherapy session and this is more likely to be achievable the more the client practises self hypnosis techniques at home.
It is also important for the client to be given time to describe their experience of pain in detail, including what makes the pain better or worse, the duration of the symptoms and what words most describe the sensation of pain; stabbing, aching, burning, pins and needles etc. The very act of a hypnotherapist taking time to listen to the chronic pain client may be therapeutic in itself, but it is also invaluable for the therapist in planning the hypnotherapy sessions and using appropriate visualisations and language. To use a simplistic example, a chronic pain client who describes their pain as a hot, burning pain may respond better to visualisations involving cool, soothing imagery and colours usually associated with coolness; blue, turquoise, silver, white etc., whereas a client describing their pain as a dull, continuous ache might relate better to warming imagery and associated colours; red, yellow, orange, gold etc.
Hypnotherapy has several tools in its armoury to support the chronic pain client and what one client finds useful may not necessarily work for another. It may be useful for the hypnotherapist to test the client’s ability to visualise images prior to commencing hypnosis. This is because not everybody interprets the world around them in the same way. Some clients, for example, may find that representing their pain in their minds as a sound that can be made louder or softer, rather than an image that can be made larger or smaller, is a more effective route to managing chronic pain.
The point is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the use of hypnotherapy for pain management. The chronic pain client is also likely to benefit from a holistic approach to their condition. The interrelated issues of anxiety, sleep disturbance, lack of confidence and low self esteem are all conditions that can affect the chronic pain client and these issues should be addressed as part of the hypnotherapy sessions in an attempt to improve quality of life and well being.
The effectiveness of hypnotherapy in supporting clients with managing their pain is likely to be influenced by the expectations and motivation of individual clients. Whilst some chronic pain clients might consider any perceived reduction in their pain as a ‘success’, others might consider anything less than the permanent, complete relief of their pain as a ‘failure.’ Therefore it is important that the hypnotherapist discusses possible outcomes (and factors that might influence outcomes) with the client before embarking upon hypnotherapy sessions, in order that goals are realistic and achievable.
There is currently a great deal of time and money being invested in the area of research into pain control as can be seen at the Pain Less Exhibition running at the Science Museum in London. The exhibition draws attention to the complexities of researching the way the brain interprets pain. It is hoped that eventually medical science will be able to find a cure for all chronic pain, but in the meantime, there is a role for hypnotherapy in supporting chronic pain sufferers to manage their distressing and debilitating condition. As clinical trials both in the UK and abroad look at quantifying the efficacy of hypnotherapy in supporting clients in managing their chronic pain, the role of hypnotherapy may change. Perhaps in the future hypnotherapy will be regarded as a front line treatment, rather than as a last resort for those with the most life changing and previously intractable pain conditions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
University of Iowa News Release
March 14, 2005
Brain Imaging Studies Investigate Pain Reduction By Hypnosis
Although hypnosis has been shown to reduce pain perception, it is not clear how the technique works. Identifying a sound, scientific explanation for hypnosis’ effect might increase acceptance and use of this safe pain-reduction option in clinical settings.
Researchers at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find out if hypnosis alters brain activity in a way that might explain pain reduction. The results are reported in the November-December 2004 issue of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.
The researchers found that volunteers under hypnosis experienced significant pain reduction in response to painful heat. They also had a distinctly different pattern of brain activity compared to when they were not hypnotized and experienced the painful heat. The changes in brain activity suggest that hypnosis somehow blocks the pain signal from getting to the parts of the brain that perceive pain.
“The major finding from our study, which used fMRI for the first time to investigate brain activity under hypnosis for pain suppression, is that we see reduced activity in areas of the pain network and increased activity in other areas of the brain under hypnosis,” said Sebastian Schulz-Stubner, M.D., Ph.D., UI assistant professor (clinical) of anesthesia and first author of the study. “The increased activity might be specific for hypnosis or might be non-specific, but it definitely does something to reduce the pain signal input into the cortical structure.”
The pain network functions like a relay system with an input pain signal from a peripheral nerve going to the spinal cord where the information is processed and passed on to the brain stem. From there the signal goes to the mid-brain region and finally into the cortical brain region that deals with conscious perception of external stimuli like pain.
Processing of the pain signal through the lower parts of the pain network looked the same in the brain images for both hypnotized and non-hypnotized trials, but activity in the top level of the network, which would be responsible for “feeling” the pain, was reduced under hypnosis.
Initially, 12 volunteers at the Technical University of Aachen had a heating device placed on their skin to determine the temperature that each volunteer considered painful (8 out of 10 on a 0 to 10 pain scale). The volunteers were then split into two groups. One group was hypnotized, placed in the fMRI machine and their brain activity scanned while the painful thermal stimuli was applied. Then the hypnotic state was broken and a second fMRI scan was performed without hypnosis while the same painful heat was again applied to the volunteer’s skin. The second group underwent their first fMRI scan without hypnosis followed by a second scan under hypnosis.
Hypnosis was successful in reducing pain perception for all 12 participants. Hypnotized volunteers reported either no pain or significantly reduced pain (less than 3 on the 0-10 pain scale) in response to the painful heat.
Under hypnosis, fMRI showed that brain activity was reduced in areas of the pain network, including the primary sensory cortex, which is responsible for pain perception.
The imaging studies also showed increased activation in two other brain structures — the left anterior cingulate cortex and the basal ganglia. The researchers speculate that increased activity in these two regions may be part of an inhibition pathway that blocks the pain signal from reaching the higher cortical structures responsible for pain perception. However, Schulz-Stubner noted that more detailed fMRI images are needed to definitively identify the exact areas involved in hypnosis-induced pain reduction, and he hoped that the newer generation of fMRI machines would be capable of providing more answers.
“Imaging studies like this one improve our understanding of what might be going on and help researchers ask even more specific questions aimed at identifying the underlying mechanism,” Schulz-Stubner said. “It is one piece of the puzzle that moves us a little closer to a final answer for how hypnosis really works.
“More practically, for clinical use, it helps to dispel prejudice about hypnosis as a technique to manage pain because we can show an objective, measurable change in brain activity linked to a reduced perception of pain,” he added.
In addition to Schulz-Stubner, the research team included Timo Krings, M.D., Ingo Meister, M.D., Stefen Rex, M.D., Armin Thron, M.D., Ph.D. and Rolf Rossaint, M.D., Ph.D., from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany.
University of Iowa Health Care describes the partnership between the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics and the patient care, medical education and research programs and services they provide. Visit UI Health Care online at
http://www.uihealthcare.com.
STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Health Science Relations, 5135 Westlawn, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1178
Pain should never be treated for its own sake, but if the underlying cause is known and your doctor gives permission, hypnosis can be very effective tool in relieving pain.
Hypnotherapy is used in a variety of situations for treating pain, including the following:
- Post-operative pain – where traditional painkillers aren’t appropriate, perhaps because the patient is afraid needles or allergic to medication.
- Phantom limb pain – amputees sometimes experience pain from limbs which have been removed, and research has shown that hypnosis has had impressive results in treating this kind of pain.
- Palliative care – some Hypnotherapists work with terminally ill patients to manage their pain and improve their quality of life.
Hypnosis in the treatment of chronic pain generally, but not always, involves a hypnotic induction with suggestions for relaxation and comfort.
Very often the focus of hypnosis in the treatment of chronic pain also often involves teaching the patient self-hypnosis or providing tape recordings of hypnosis sessions. These can then be used to reduce pain on a daily basis, outside of sessions. Some patients experience an immediate reduction in pain severity following hypnosis treatment, whereas others can obtain reduction in pain with repeated practice of self-hypnosis or hypnosis sessions.
Additionally, posthypnotic suggestions may also be given to suggest reduced pain when with the Hypnotherapist. This suggestion is designed to continue beyond the session. In the case of pain management the patient can be taught to quickly and easily create a state of comfort using what is known as a trigger or cue, e.g. taking a deep breath and exhaling as their eyes close.
I hope this has helped you in your understanding of managing pain using Hypnotherapy. However, I have put up a couple of articles for you to read. You can see what others say about the use of Hypnotherapy in the management of pain. The first is from another Hypnotherapist and then from the University of IOWA:
The Role of Hypnotherapy In Chronic Pain Management
August 27th, 2013 by Sally Reeve Hypnotherapist BSc (Hons) ASHMPH GHR GQHP
Acute pain is usually defined as pain characterised by its sudden onset and short duration. Chronic pain is pain that persists for several months, years, or in some cases, pain that can last a lifetime. It is a complex, debilitating and life changing condition.
Estimates vary, but it is thought that the number of chronic pain sufferers in the UK runs into the millions, at great cost to the economy in terms of days lost at work, an increased reliance on state benefits, and the substantial financial burden on the NHS. However, the personal toll on the individual chronic pain sufferer is even more difficult to quantify. Depression, lack of self worth, lack of confidence, a breakdown in relationships, a sense of hopelessness and increasing social isolation may lead to many chronic pain sufferers turning to complementary practitioners in a bid to ease their pain.
Conventional medical treatments for chronic pain are often protracted and multi-disciplinary and may include powerful medication, physiotherapy, surgery and talking therapies. For some chronic pain sufferers, a combination of mainstream medical treatments may result in an alleviation of their pain, but what alternatives are there for those for whom nothing else seems to work? Is hypnotherapy of use in the management of chronic pain?
It is essential that anyone considering consulting a hypnotherapist for support in managing their chronic pain condition should already have a formal diagnosis from a qualified medical practitioner. Pain is the body’s signal that something is wrong, and the causes of chronic pain should be thoroughly investigated before the hypnotherapist is consulted.
The hypnotherapist may ask the chronic pain client to rate their pain on a Pain Scale so that their experience of pain can be recorded from one therapy session to the next, to measure progress. Pain Scales are invaluable because the experience of pain is very subjective. The way the brain perceives and interprets pain signals may vary from person to person so that what might be unbearable for one client might be tolerable in another. Clients can be taught self hypnosis techniques as part of the hypnotherapy sessions so that they can practise at home, often with the support of a personalised CD. Hypnotherapy techniques used in pain management hypnotherapy sessions often include some form of progressive relaxation induction, distraction techniques, the use of visualisations of the pain itself, together with post hypnotic suggestions and cues for increased control over the chronic pain, and a focus on recovery and wellness. The progressive relaxation induction technique, in itself, may be of benefit to the chronic pain client as many clients describe their pain as being worse when they are stressed and their muscles are tensed up. Also, many chronic pain clients find the progressive relaxation technique easy to learn, so can leave the hypnotherapy session feeling that they already have a tool to help them manage their pain. This is an essential part of pain management and hypnotherapy. Clients need to feel that they will be able to learn to manage their pain outside of the hypnotherapy session and this is more likely to be achievable the more the client practises self hypnosis techniques at home.
It is also important for the client to be given time to describe their experience of pain in detail, including what makes the pain better or worse, the duration of the symptoms and what words most describe the sensation of pain; stabbing, aching, burning, pins and needles etc. The very act of a hypnotherapist taking time to listen to the chronic pain client may be therapeutic in itself, but it is also invaluable for the therapist in planning the hypnotherapy sessions and using appropriate visualisations and language. To use a simplistic example, a chronic pain client who describes their pain as a hot, burning pain may respond better to visualisations involving cool, soothing imagery and colours usually associated with coolness; blue, turquoise, silver, white etc., whereas a client describing their pain as a dull, continuous ache might relate better to warming imagery and associated colours; red, yellow, orange, gold etc.
Hypnotherapy has several tools in its armoury to support the chronic pain client and what one client finds useful may not necessarily work for another. It may be useful for the hypnotherapist to test the client’s ability to visualise images prior to commencing hypnosis. This is because not everybody interprets the world around them in the same way. Some clients, for example, may find that representing their pain in their minds as a sound that can be made louder or softer, rather than an image that can be made larger or smaller, is a more effective route to managing chronic pain.
The point is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the use of hypnotherapy for pain management. The chronic pain client is also likely to benefit from a holistic approach to their condition. The interrelated issues of anxiety, sleep disturbance, lack of confidence and low self esteem are all conditions that can affect the chronic pain client and these issues should be addressed as part of the hypnotherapy sessions in an attempt to improve quality of life and well being.
The effectiveness of hypnotherapy in supporting clients with managing their pain is likely to be influenced by the expectations and motivation of individual clients. Whilst some chronic pain clients might consider any perceived reduction in their pain as a ‘success’, others might consider anything less than the permanent, complete relief of their pain as a ‘failure.’ Therefore it is important that the hypnotherapist discusses possible outcomes (and factors that might influence outcomes) with the client before embarking upon hypnotherapy sessions, in order that goals are realistic and achievable.
There is currently a great deal of time and money being invested in the area of research into pain control as can be seen at the Pain Less Exhibition running at the Science Museum in London. The exhibition draws attention to the complexities of researching the way the brain interprets pain. It is hoped that eventually medical science will be able to find a cure for all chronic pain, but in the meantime, there is a role for hypnotherapy in supporting chronic pain sufferers to manage their distressing and debilitating condition. As clinical trials both in the UK and abroad look at quantifying the efficacy of hypnotherapy in supporting clients in managing their chronic pain, the role of hypnotherapy may change. Perhaps in the future hypnotherapy will be regarded as a front line treatment, rather than as a last resort for those with the most life changing and previously intractable pain conditions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
University of Iowa News Release
March 14, 2005
Brain Imaging Studies Investigate Pain Reduction By Hypnosis
Although hypnosis has been shown to reduce pain perception, it is not clear how the technique works. Identifying a sound, scientific explanation for hypnosis’ effect might increase acceptance and use of this safe pain-reduction option in clinical settings.
Researchers at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the Technical University of Aachen, Germany, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find out if hypnosis alters brain activity in a way that might explain pain reduction. The results are reported in the November-December 2004 issue of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.
The researchers found that volunteers under hypnosis experienced significant pain reduction in response to painful heat. They also had a distinctly different pattern of brain activity compared to when they were not hypnotized and experienced the painful heat. The changes in brain activity suggest that hypnosis somehow blocks the pain signal from getting to the parts of the brain that perceive pain.
“The major finding from our study, which used fMRI for the first time to investigate brain activity under hypnosis for pain suppression, is that we see reduced activity in areas of the pain network and increased activity in other areas of the brain under hypnosis,” said Sebastian Schulz-Stubner, M.D., Ph.D., UI assistant professor (clinical) of anesthesia and first author of the study. “The increased activity might be specific for hypnosis or might be non-specific, but it definitely does something to reduce the pain signal input into the cortical structure.”
The pain network functions like a relay system with an input pain signal from a peripheral nerve going to the spinal cord where the information is processed and passed on to the brain stem. From there the signal goes to the mid-brain region and finally into the cortical brain region that deals with conscious perception of external stimuli like pain.
Processing of the pain signal through the lower parts of the pain network looked the same in the brain images for both hypnotized and non-hypnotized trials, but activity in the top level of the network, which would be responsible for “feeling” the pain, was reduced under hypnosis.
Initially, 12 volunteers at the Technical University of Aachen had a heating device placed on their skin to determine the temperature that each volunteer considered painful (8 out of 10 on a 0 to 10 pain scale). The volunteers were then split into two groups. One group was hypnotized, placed in the fMRI machine and their brain activity scanned while the painful thermal stimuli was applied. Then the hypnotic state was broken and a second fMRI scan was performed without hypnosis while the same painful heat was again applied to the volunteer’s skin. The second group underwent their first fMRI scan without hypnosis followed by a second scan under hypnosis.
Hypnosis was successful in reducing pain perception for all 12 participants. Hypnotized volunteers reported either no pain or significantly reduced pain (less than 3 on the 0-10 pain scale) in response to the painful heat.
Under hypnosis, fMRI showed that brain activity was reduced in areas of the pain network, including the primary sensory cortex, which is responsible for pain perception.
The imaging studies also showed increased activation in two other brain structures — the left anterior cingulate cortex and the basal ganglia. The researchers speculate that increased activity in these two regions may be part of an inhibition pathway that blocks the pain signal from reaching the higher cortical structures responsible for pain perception. However, Schulz-Stubner noted that more detailed fMRI images are needed to definitively identify the exact areas involved in hypnosis-induced pain reduction, and he hoped that the newer generation of fMRI machines would be capable of providing more answers.
“Imaging studies like this one improve our understanding of what might be going on and help researchers ask even more specific questions aimed at identifying the underlying mechanism,” Schulz-Stubner said. “It is one piece of the puzzle that moves us a little closer to a final answer for how hypnosis really works.
“More practically, for clinical use, it helps to dispel prejudice about hypnosis as a technique to manage pain because we can show an objective, measurable change in brain activity linked to a reduced perception of pain,” he added.
In addition to Schulz-Stubner, the research team included Timo Krings, M.D., Ingo Meister, M.D., Stefen Rex, M.D., Armin Thron, M.D., Ph.D. and Rolf Rossaint, M.D., Ph.D., from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany.
University of Iowa Health Care describes the partnership between the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and UI Hospitals and Clinics and the patient care, medical education and research programs and services they provide. Visit UI Health Care online at
http://www.uihealthcare.com.
STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Health Science Relations, 5135 Westlawn, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1178