Hypnosis: a safe and potent pain reliever.(CR Health)

Discomfort during certain medical procedures can be reduced with the help of hypnosis. In a study in Wales of 80 cancer patients ages 6 to 16, for example, those who received hypnosis from a therapist reported less pain and anxiety, and demonstrated less distress than those who received only standard care when undergoing painful spinal cord punctures. A review of nine earlier studies, published in the June 2004 Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, concluded that there was enough positive evidence to warrant larger-scale investigations of the use of hypnosis in children with cancer.

Hypnosis may also relieve procedure-related pain in adults. A small trial of patients undergoing angioplasty, an invasive heart procedure, found that the sedative effect of hypnosis was slightly better than that of the drug diazepam (Valium).

Clinical trials have also found that hypnosis can help adult patients control other forms of pain, relieve gastrointestinal problems, stimulate weight loss, clear up skin problems, and accelerate the healing of bone fractures and surgical wounds. And the newest guidelines from the U.S. Headache Consortium, a coalition of seven medical groups, include hypnosis among the nondrug measures most proven to help prevent headaches.

NOT FOR EVERYONE

Hypnosis doesn't work for everything or everyone. Though often promoted as a smoking-cessation tool, it was not found to be very helpful for would-be quitters in a review of 59 studies published in 2000.

The technique may work best for people who are imaginative, trusting, able to focus their attention, and willing to do the follow-up exercises that often accompany it--including listening to self-hypnosis tapes at home.

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