"Hypnosis can be used very
effectively for pain reduction. It can also be very useful in treating anxiety in people
who are anxious. Hypnosis has been shown to be effective in helping people to stop smoking
and in controlling overeating." David Spiegel, M.D. Associate Chairman of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University.
Hypnosis and Surgery: Past, Present, and
Future
Albrecht H. K. Wobst, MD
Hypnosis has been defined as the induction of a subjective state in which alterations of
perception or memory can be elicited by suggestion. Ever since the first public
demonstrations of "animal magnetism" by Mesmer in the 18th century, the use of
this psychological tool has fascinated the medical communityand public alike. The
application of hypnosis to alter pain perception and memory dates back centuries. Yet
little progress has been made to fully comprehend or appreciate its potential compared to
the pharmacologic advances in anesthesiology.
Recently, hypnosis has aroused interest, as hypnosis seems to complement and possibly
enhance conscious sedation. Contemporary clinical investigators claim that the combination
of analgesia and hypnosisis superior to conventional pharmacologic anesthesia for minor
surgical cases, with patients and surgeons responding favorably. Simultaneously, basic
research of pain pathways involving the nociceptive flexion reflex and positron emission
tomography has yielded objective data regarding the physiologic correlates of hypnosis. In
this article I review the history, basic scientific and clinical studies, and modern
practical considerations of one of the oldest therapeutical tools: the power of
suggestion.
From the Department of Anesthesiology,
University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida.
Address correspondence to Albrecht H. K. Wobst, MD, Department of Anesthesiology, PO Box
100254, Gainesville, FL 32610-0254. Address e-mail to awobst@anest.ufl.edu .
Discover Magazine, January 2005
"YOU WILL NOW FEEL BETTER….
As a surgeon who has used hypnotic techniques with patients, I
heartily support psychiatrist David Speigel’s findings [“Hypnosis Works,”
November]. I think that studies of the brain both under anesthesia and under hypnosis
would show many similarities. I have been able to correct cardiac arrythmias, bleeding,
rapid pulse rates, and other physiological problems by talking to anesthetized patients in
a therapeutic way during surgical procedures and by using similar procedures
preoperatively. Surgeons have also done major abdominal surgery on patients under hypnosis
alone. Hypnotic and communication techniques can create positive results. The placebo
effect is, in essence, a positive result of communication. I have had children go to sleep
as they entered the operating room because I told them they would, and some have resisted
hair loss from chemotherapy because we relabeled their vitamins “hair growing
pills.” Just as we can heal with a scalpel, we can heal with words." Bernie
Siegel, Woodbridge, Connecticut
Hypnosis can be used for pain management, emergencies, irritable bowel,
pre-during-and after surgery, cancer treatment support, auto immune diseases, and simple
everyday procedures and much more:
Hypnotherapeutic interventions are used for allergies, asthma, arthritis, cancer,
cardiovascular disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, ulcers, colitis, headaches,
hypertension and dermatological disorders and more;
Help clients eliminate anxiety and discomfort for surgery and other medical procedures
Alleviate side effects of chemo and radiation therapy and accelerate healing
Hypnosis for Dental procedures
Of course we use medical hypnosis or hypnotherapy for weight loss and losing weight
naturally, and to stop smoking, however, there are many more possibilities. You can use
hypnosis for stress management, pain management, to increase your immune system, overcome
insomnia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, pre-operative and intraoperative procedures, promote
healing, skin conditions, phobias, anxiety and the list goes on and on.
Medical Hypnosis and the AMA
In 1958, the American Medical Association accepted Hypnosis as an adjunct to medical
practice. In 1958 hypnosis was recognized by the American Medical Association as a
legitimate, safe approach to medical and psychological problems. The American Psychiatric
Association (APA), and the British Medical Association (BMA), has recognized hypnosis as a
viable therapeutic tool as well. According to the AMA, within the decade virtually every
outpatient surgery unit and clinic will be utilizing hypnosis. More than ever before,
people are demanding alternatives to traditional medicine.
Alternative therapies are having an incredible impact on people's perception of health. A
1998 survey by Stanford University reported that 69% of all Americans use some form of
complementary or alternative medicine. It is estimated they spend almost $28 billion a
year on them - more than they spend out of pocket for conventional medicine. An American
Medical Association study that same year showed U.S. adults made over 600 million visits
to alternative practitioners - exceeding the number of visits made to primary care
physicians. The medical community is now taking notice.
Mind over Medicine
Hypnosis as an alternative to sedation is making a comeback in the operating
room. Here's how it works!
By SORA SONG
Time magazine article
Sunday, Mar. 19, 2006
Shelley Thomas, 53, was wheeled into an anteroom at London's Middlesex Hospital in
preparation for pelvic surgery. A patient going into that operation is usually given a mix
of painkilling narcotics and nerve-quelling tranquilizers. But not Thomas. Instead she
rested on a gurney, alert and calm, taking deep breaths at her hypnotherapist's
instruction. Thomas counted aloud, "One hundred, deep sleep; 99, deeper sleep; 98
..."
"By the time I got to 95, the words and numbers had all gone," says Thomas.
"It's quite peculiar. They all go."
Minutes later, thoroughly hypnotized, Thomas was rolled into the operating room. There she
underwent a 30-min. procedure with no anesthetics and no discernible pain. Her
hypnotherapist stayed by her side throughout, monitoring her trance state and refocusing
her mind when it drifted.
Thomas' story is not as extraordinary as you might think. Since the early 1990s, thousands
of patients have opted for hypnosis--either as a substitute for or (more typically) as a
complement to anesthesia--in a wide variety of surgical procedures, from repairing hernias
to removing tumors. At the University Hospital of Liége in Belgium, a team of doctors led
by Dr. Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville has logged more than 5,100 surgeries by hypnosedation,
a technique Faymonville developed that replaces general anesthesia with hypnosis, local
anesthesia and a mild sedative. "Patients tell us that it is a very special
experience," says Faymonville. "We now have people coming from all over the
world."
Hypnosis was first used as a surgical anesthetic in India in 1845 but was quickly
abandoned with the introduction of ether the following year. The practice languished for
decades, becoming, at least in the public eye, little more than a parlor trick. In 1958 it
was sanctioned by the American Medical Association for use in medicine and dentistry.
Since then, doctors have hypnotized patients to help ease such ills as migraines,
depression, anxiety and chronic cancer pain.
But it is in Europe that surgical applications of hypnosis have flourished. The new
interest stems in part from studies showing that hypnosedated patients suffer fewer side
effects than fully sedated ones do. According to Faymonville, hypnotized patients can get
by on less than 1% of the standard medications required for general anesthesia, thus
avoiding such aftereffects as nausea, fatigue, lack of coordination and cognitive
impairment. In a 1999 study of thyroid patients, Faymonville found that the typical
hypnosedated patient returned to work 15 days after surgery, compared with 28 days for a
fully anesthetized patient.
Meanwhile, studies using advanced scanning technology have shed new light on how hypnosis
works to block pain. In a report published two years ago in the journal Regional
Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Dr. Sebastian Schulz-Stübner of the University of Iowa
reported using heat-producing thermodes to measure the pain thresholds of 12 healthy
volunteers ("painful" stimuli earning a rating of 8 or higher on a 10-point
scale). When the participants were hypnotized and re-exposed to the thermodes, all 12
reported feeling significantly reduced pain (with ratings of 3 or lower) or no pain at
all.
The differences in the subjects' brain scans were equally striking. The typical pain
signal follows a well-worn path from the brain stem through the midbrain and into the
cortex, where conscious feelings of pain arise. In Schulz-Stübner's study, the hypnotized
group showed subcortical brain activity similar to that of nonhypnotized volunteers, but
the primary sensory cortex stayed quiet. The "ouch" message wasn't making it
past the midbrain and into consciousness.
The new findings have fostered interest in the U.S., where doctors are using hypnosis for
procedures in which sedation is inappropriate or for patients who are allergic to
anesthetics. Dr. David Spiegel, associate chair of the department of psychiatry and
behavioral sciences at Stanford University, hypnotizes Parkinson's sufferers during the
implantation of deep-brain electrodes--a process that requires tremulous patients to
remain conscious and calm. He has also coaxed children into imagining that a balloon tied
to their wrist will fly them to their favorite places, a hypnotic technique that has
lessened anxiety in pediatric patients undergoing bladder catheterizations. In Iowa,
Schulz-Stübner hypnotizes patients to reduce pain and anxiety while they receive
presurgery nerve blocks, such as epidurals. He finds that the calming effects of hypnosis
often last through the entire operation.
Yet even the most enthusiastic proponents of hypnosedation don't suggest that it replace
anesthesia entirely. For one thing, not everybody can be hypnotized. Some 60% of patients
are hypnotizable to some degree, Spiegel says; an additional 15%, highly so. The rest seem
to be unresponsive. Moreover, many patients are fully sedated before surgery not because
the surgeon requires it but because they choose to be. "People don't want to feel or
hear anything. They want to be out," says Schulz-Stübner. "That's what you hear
most of the time."
Medical Hypnosis is gaining credibility! In July,
2001, Scientific American stated, "Though often denigrated as fakery or
wishful thinking, hypnosis has been shown to be a real phenomenon with a variety of
therapeutic uses especially in controlling pain." The Wall Street Journal in
the October 7th, 2003 issue stated, "Numerous scientifc studies have emerged in
recent years showing that the hypnotized mind can exert a real and powerul effect on the
body."
"I frequently refer patients to Hypnotherapists because I have seen it
produce excellent results in many illnesses..." - Andrew Weil M.D. Clinical Professor
of Medicine at the University of Arizona and Director of Integrative Medicine.
"Change your mind,
Change your life!"
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