Hypnosis gaining more acceptance in mainstream medicine

“It's time for hypnosis to work it's way into the mainstream of British medicine.”

So says Prof. David Speigel of the Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University in the US.

He's also calling for the UK regulatory body, The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to add hypnotherapy to it's list of approve therapeutic techniques for the treatment of conditions ranging from allergies and high blood pressure to the pain associated with bone marrow transplantation, cancer treatment and anaesthesia for liver biopsy. Nice has already approved the technique for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.

"There is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism and we need to get that message across to the bodies that influence this area. Hypnosis has no negative side-effects. It makes operations quicker, as the patient is able to talk to the surgeon as the operation proceeds, and it is cheaper than conventional pain relief. Since it does not interfere with the workings of the body, the patient recovers faster, too. It is also extremely powerful as a means of pain relief. Hypnosis has been accepted and rejected because people are nervous of it. They think it's either too powerful or not powerful enough, but, although the public are sceptical, the hardest part of the procedure is getting other doctors to accept it."

Professor Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville, head of the Pain Clinic at Liege University Hospital in Belgium, who has operated on more than 6,000 patients using hypnosis combined with a light local anaesthetic, said: "The local anaesthetic is used only to deaden the surface of the skin while a scalpel slices through it. It has no effect inside the body.

"The patient is conscious throughout the operation and this helps the doctor and patient work together. The patient may have to move during an operation and it's simple to get them to do so if they remain conscious. We've even done a hysterectomy using the procedure."

The theory behind medical hypnosis is that the body's brain and nervous system can't always distinguish an imagined situation from a real occurrence. This means the brain can act on any image or verbal suggestion as if it were reality. Hypnosis puts patients into a state of deep relaxation that is very susceptible to imagery. The more vivid this imagery, the greater the effect on the body.

Dr Martin Wall, president of the Section Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine at the Royal Society of Medicine, said hypnosis fundamentally alters a subject's state of mind. Hypnosis is not, he said, simply a matter of suggestibility and relaxation.

This is from an article by Amelia Hill, the Social Affairs Correspondent of The Observer newspaper in the UK. Read the full article at http://bit.ly/129Coq.

The article also quotes NICE as saying that hypnotherapy could be considered for approval if it was shown to be cost-effective and a consistent standard of delivery could be guaranteed.

In that regard, when seeking a hypnotherapist either via the NHS or privately, I suggest seeking someone who is experienced and well trained. All the therapists on Just Be Well, for example, meet that requirement.

In yesterday's Guardian was a story about a poor girl who died of starvation after dental treatment went wrong and she developed a phobia. Now clearly there's a lot to be said about the role of the health service and social services here. I'll leave that for others.

What concerns me is this, from the article: "Although Sophie's case is exceptional, it raises questions about the way children with phobias are treated - and about the quality of community psychological care. Sophie developed her phobia at the age of four when a dentist scratched her tongue accidentally. From that time, her mother said that whenever she tried to take her for treatment she would run out of the surgery with her hand clamped over her mouth.” 
 

Eventually Sophie had all her teeth removed during surgery, “because the hospital dentist knew she was frightened and removing them all would prevent problems in the future.” 
 

All I know about this is the Guardian story and not the deep background. That said, if we're dealing with a child with dental phobia there's just no need for it to have reached this tragic conclusion. No need whatsoever.

In hypnotic NLP there's a technique known as the fast phobia cure. I've had great results with clients who have had real problems with phobias – heights, public speaking, all sorts – including recently a phobic reaction to other people being sick. It's quick, easy, and NLP practitioners and hypontherapists will all confirm how effective this technique is.

So why isn't it used as a matter of course in cases such as Sophie? I wish I knew. Sometimes people object to quick and easy cures because they don't get to the root of the problem, or because they may not last forever. Okay that's fine. The issue with not getting to the root may mean the cure needs to be applied again. Well, hell, it takes twenty minutes or less. If the technique had to be run through every time Sophie went to the dentist where's the problem with that?

There are other ways of getting successful dental treatment using hypnosis. In fact, some people opt not to have an anaesthetic and receive treatment while in trance.

Please, if you have any limits placed on your medical or dental treatment by your phobias or fears, seek out an NLP Practitioner, Hypnotist or Hypnotherapist. Let's have no more Sophies.