Evaluation of the efficacy and neural mechanism of a hypnotic analgesia procedure in experimental and clinical dental pain

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Abstract
Previous research implicates an endogenous central pain inhibitory mechanism in opiate analgesia, analgesia produced by focal electrical stimulation of the brain and acupuncture analgesia. The possibility that analgesia produced by hypnosis was also mediated by such a mechanism was investigated. Hypnotic analgesia is unlikely to involve this central pain inhibitory mechanism, since hypnotic analgesia was not altered by naloxone hydrochloride, a specific narcotic antagonist. The hypnotic procedure used produced an unusually effective and reliable increase in pain threshold. Hypnotic pain control may be a more widespread phenomenon in the population than has been thought.