The Effects of “Hypnosis” on Pain

Abstract

Experimental and clinical studies concerned with the effects of “hypnotically-suggested analgesia” in surgery, in labor, and in chronic pain are critically evaluated. The review suggests that “hypnotic analgesia” at times produces not a reduction in pain but an unwillingness to state directly to the hypnotist that pain was experienced or a temporary “amnesia” for the pain experienced. In other instances, suggestions of pain relief given under “hypnosis” produce some degree of diminution in anxiety and pain as indicated by reduction in physiological responses to noxious stimuli and by reduction in requests for pain-relieving drugs. The data suggest that “the hypnotic trance state” may be an extraneous variable in ameliorating pain experience in situations described as “hypnosis;” the critical variables appear to include: (a) suggestions of pain relief, which are (b) given in a close interpersonal setting.