1995/04/01 by Irving Kirsch, Guy H. Montgomery, Guy Sapirstein · 12 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Pain Management and Placebo Effect #Psychological Treatments and Assessments #Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
paper · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.63.2.214
openalex publication_date 1995/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
A meta-analysis was performed on 18 studies in which a cognitive-behavioral therapy was compared with the same therapy supplemented by hypnosis. The results indicated that the addition of hypnosis substantially enhanced treatment outcome, so that the average client receiving cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapy showed greater improvement than at least 70% of clients receiving nonhypnotic treatment. Effects seemed particularly pronounced for treatments of obesity, especially at long-term follow-up, indicating that unlike those in nonhypnotic treatment, clients to whom hypnotic inductions had been administered continued to lose weight after treatment ended. These results were particularly striking because of the few procedural differences between the hypnotic and nonhypnotic treatments.