Pain Control through NLP, Hypnosis and Guided Imagery

Anyone living with chronic pain knows how debilitating it can be, and how difficult - sometimes impossible - it can be to find relief. However, pain control is one of the most widely studied and successfully applied uses of hypnosis in the last several decades.

Many chronic pain patients have had the experience of being treated as though they were "drug seekers" or addicts, when in fact; all that they were desperately trying to achieve is relief from the pain. There is certainly good news, however; hypnosis can help and it is not a controlled or addictive "substance."

For example, look at the comparison below of how patients who received pain control suggestions via meditation as compared to those who received more conventional (drug-based) treatment. Hypnosis was clearly even more effective in patients reported pain ratings even than morphine!

In a study called "The effectiveness of adjunctive hypnosis with surgical patients: A meta-analysis" (by Montgomery, G. H., David, D., Winkel, G., Siverstein, J. H., Bovbjerg, D. H. (2002). Anesthesia and Analgesia, 94(6), 1639-1645,) the researchers found that surgical patients in hypnosis treatment groups had betteroutcomes than 89% of patients in control groups. No significantdifferences were found between clinical outcome categories orbetween methods of the induction of hypnosis. (That is, whether these patients were working with a hypnotherapist or using CD"s for self-hypnosis.   A separate study by Montgomery, GH. DuHamel, KN., Redd WH. (2000). (A meta-analysis of hypnotically induced analgesia: how effective is hypnosis? International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 48(2), 138-53.) Even showed that hypnosis was an effective treatment against experimentally induced pain.

Whether you"re suffering from arthritic pain or pain associated with serious illness, hypnosis can be an extremely valuable tool in helping you to feel better.

Another study, (Hawkins, RMF, Pain Reviews, Volume 8, Number 2, 1 June 2001, pp. 47-73(27)) of hypnotically induced analgesia showed that "the average participant treated with hypnosis demonstrated greater analgesic response than 75% of participants in standard and no-treatment control groups."

Still another study, "Hypnotherapy for the Management of Chronic Pain" (International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Volume 55, Number 3, July 2007 , pp. 275-287(13) looked at outcomes from hypnosis for the treatment of chronic pain to either baseline data or a control condition. The findings showed 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 non-hypnotic interventions such as attention, physical therapy, and education.

In a study looking at the patient"s perceived benefits from hypnosis therapy for pain control,most participants reported satisfaction with hypnosis treatment even when the targeted symptom (in this case, pain intensity) did not decrease substantially. Study participants also reported a variety of both symptom-related and non symptom-related benefits from hypnosis treatment, including decreased pain, increased perceived control over pain, increased sense of relaxation and well-being, and decreased perceived stress, although no single benefit was noted by a majority of participants. (Jensen, M; McArthur, K; Barber, J ; Hanley, M; Engel, J; Romano, J; Cardenas, D; Kraft, G; Hoffman, A; Patterson, D International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Volume 54, Number 4, October 2006 , pp. 432-447(16))

Since hypnosis is a non-invasive, inexpensive, simple and cost-effective method to control pain and feel better for most people, with few to no known side-effects for mentally healthy patients, the use of hypnosis for pain control is a sensible addition to the self-care for anyone dealing with chronic pain or even with an injury or surgical pain.