2007/05/31 by Gary Elkins, Mark P. Jensen, David R. Patterson · 2 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Alternative medicine #Chronic pain #Clinical psychology #Clinical trial #Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies #Headaches #Hypnosis #Internal medicine #Medicine #Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation #Pain Management and Placebo Effect #Physical therapy #Psychiatry #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Psychotherapist
paper · doi:10.1080/00207140701338621
crossref issued 2007/05/31 · crossref published 2007/05/31 · crossref published-print 2007/05/31 · openalex publication_date 2007/05/31 · crossref created 2007/06/08 · crossref deposited 2017/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This article reviews controlled prospective trials of hypnosis for the treatment of chronic pain. Thirteen studies, excluding studies of headaches, were identified that compared outcomes from hypnosis for the treatment of chronic pain to either baseline data or a control condition. The findings indicate that hypnosis interventions consistently produce significant decreases in pain associated with a variety of chronic-pain problems. Also, hypnosis was generally found to be more effective than nonhypnotic interventions such as attention, physical therapy, and education. Most of the hypnosis interventions for chronic pain include instructions in self-hypnosis. However, there is a lack of standardization of the hypnotic interventions examined in clinical trials, and the number of patients enrolled in the studies has tended to be low and lacking long-term follow-up. Implications of the findings for future clinical research and applications are discussed.