Clinical Hypnosis in Problems of Pain

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Abstract
Management of pain problems is one of the oldest and most enduring uses of hypnosis in clinical practice. Removal of pain with hypnosis should be done with care by persons aware of the diagnostic and treatment problems of organic illness. Although there are various psychological and physiological theories of hypnosis, some clinical observations suggest a significant neurophysiological component in hypnotic analgesia. These observations include hypnotic analgesia in (a) naive children, (b) culturally unsophisticated subjects not acquainted with the expectations of the hypnotist, and (c) those clinically sophisticated subjects who have experienced hypnosis for pain relief and have described it as similar to “cortical inhibition.” Used properly, hypnosis can alleviate much otherwise inapproachable pain and can help maintain the functional ability and dignity of many patients otherwise dependent on large quantities of medication with possible dulling of consciousness.