Clinical Hypnosis as a Complementary Therapy in Modern Healthcare

Dear Colleagues,

Hypnosis, a modified state of consciousness, has been employed for the treatment of medical conditions since the late 1700s. It was only centuries later on, in 1958, when the American Medical Association (AMA) recognized medical hypnosis as a valuable treatment modality, followed by the British Medical Association in 1995, and finally the NIH consensus conference (published in 1996), which concluded that several behavioral and relaxation interventions may be effective in the treatment of chronic pain and insomnia, and that there is strong evidence for the use of hypnosis in alleviating pain associated with cancer. Since then, many randomized controlled trials have supported the effectiveness of hypnosis in a variety of medical conditions, such as dermatology, gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology, and oncology, in preoperative care, during invasive medical procedures, etc.

The acceptance of hypnosis by the medical community has, however, been limited, partly due to the misconceptions and myths associated with this treatment modality and a lack of regulation of therapists, but mainly due to insufficient knowledge regarding the scientific basis behind medical hypnosis.

During recent years, however, the understanding of the role of cortical processing in chronic pain has led to the concept of neuromodulatory interventions in pain conditions. Following this, hypnosis has emerged as a valuable clinical tool in the treatment of pain. Hypnosis has been demonstrated to affect processes involved in the perception of pain, acting differentially on sensory and affective components of pain. In addition, neuroimaging studies are shedding more light on brain regions and brain networks that are modulated during hypnosis.

There is also some evidence that hypnosis may reduce the inflammatory response and thus be an adjunct to standard medical treatment.

We are pleased to invite you to submit original research articles, short reports, and reviews that study the experimental and clinical effects of hypnosis in modern health care, especially its multifactorial effect on pain and inflammation.

I/We look forward to hearing from you.   

Dr. Dorit Gamus
Guest Editor

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• hypnosis
• pain
• autonomic nervous system
• inflammation
• neurophysiology