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In our study, we use the post-hypnotic suggestion of easy remembering to improve memory with long-lasting effects. We tested 24 highly suggestible participants in an online study. Participants learned word lists and recalled them later in a recognition memory task. At the beginning of the study, participants were hypnotized and the post-hypnotic suggestion to remember easily was associated with a cue that participants used during the recognition memory task. In a control condition, the same participants used a neutral cue. One week later, participants repeated both conditions with new word lists.Participants were significantly faster and more confident in their recognition ratings in the easy-remembering condition compared to the control condition, and this effect persisted over one week. Crucially, the increased speed and confidence in the easy-remembering condition did not affect memory accuracy. That makes our hypnosis intervention promising for patients experiencing subjective memory impairments. APA PsycINFO codes: 2343 (Learning and Memory), 2380 (Consciousness States), 3351 (Clinical Hypnosis)

The purpose of this study was to explore whether asking middle-aged gamers and non-gamers about their video games habits will affect their performance of cognitive-motor tasks. One-hundred and twenty-one participants were randomly assigned to four groups: (a) gamers who were asked about their playing habits prior to the study, (b) gamers who were asked about their playing habits following the study, (c) non-gamers who were asked about their playing habits prior to the study, and (d) non-gamers who were asked about their playing habits following the study. The participants performed three reaction time (RT) tasks and a digit-span memory task. In a task-switching task, gamers had more correct responses when they answered the questionnaire before performing the task compared with after the task. For the non-gamers, the opposite occurred. We conclude that some performance measures of cognitive-motor tasks could have been affected by the timing of the completion of the questionnaire. This finding should be known to researchers as it may lead to biases gaming research.

Objective: Motor functional neurological disorders (mFNDs) are improved by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which is thought to involve cortical modulation. We examined the outcome of a rapid TMS procedure. Methods: Single-center retrospective case series including 41 consecutive patients suffering from mFNDs and receiving a combination of motor-evoked potentials (MEP), TMS and/or muscle stimulation. Results: MEP and additional TMS were administered in 35 patients, sometimes with rescue by muscle stimulation. Magnetic muscle stimulation was given in 6 patients, sometimes with rescue by TMS. Complete immediate recovery was obtained in 65.9 % of the 41 patients, but the outcome of mFNDs after one year was poor. Treatment by TMS (n = 19) or by muscle stimulation (n = 4) given alone were associated with 78.9 % and 75 % of complete immediate recovery, respectively. Conclusions: A rapid easy-to-perform TMS procedure obtained a high rate of immediate complete recovery in mFND. Clinical recovery was improved but was also obtained by direct magnetic stimulation of the paralyzed muscles. Significance: TMS-induced recovery of mFND may not involve cortical modulation but could rather occur through reinforcement of the suggestion. Magnetic-induced muscle twitches may facilitate the self-expectation of motor recovery and could unlock the motor symptoms of mFND.

Competing Interests: None declared.

The prevalence and localizing value of ictal belching are yet unknown. We present the case of a patient with medically refractory focal epilepsy with simple and complex partial seizures, as well as generalized seizures. One presumed seizure type comprised frequent episodes of repetitive belching. Video-EEG monitoring during these attacks showed no ictal changes. The belching episodes were inducible and terminable through suggestion. The diagnosis of excessive supragastric belching, a previously described psychogenic condition, was made.

'Mindfulness' has become a mainstream component of American culture and a successful business worth more than 1 billion dollars. Born out of Buddhist contemplative traditions that reached the West in the mid-1960s, secular mindfulness programs have spread both geographically (to the US and Europe) and socially (to healthcare, academia, politics, the military, and finance). The diffusion of mindfulness practice to domains that are culturally and socially so different from its original Buddhist context has had important consequences. This manuscript will examine some of these consequences as well as some challenges generated by the encounter between the American culture and Eastern millennial contemplative traditions. With the purpose of increasing awareness about these issues and to generate a debate within the mindfulness community, some suggestions on how to face such challenges are then offered to mindfulness researchers, instructors, and health care providers interested in alleviating the suffering of their patients using mindfulness meditation., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Recent meta-analyses have shown that psychological interventions have a small to medium effect on weight loss. We propose here a different approach to changing eating intentions. According to the Free Will literature, people decide to act before they acknowledge it, and they decide based on the reconstruction of previous experiences. The action can thus be inhibited immediately (max 100 ms) after awareness. We wanted to test if intervention based on this model, using hypnotic suggestions, can effectively change the intentions of eating. This study aims to identify which format of hypnotic suggestion can be more effective in changing eating intentions regarding high-calorie foods. Therefore, 88 healthy adult participants randomized in four groups received one session of hypnotic induction and suggestions or placebo. We measured the eating intentions through a computer task in which participants could choose pictures of low and high caloric food before, during, and after hypnosis. For the within-subject effect, results showed that two types of hypnotic suggestions significantly impacted the intentions of eating on high-calorie foods with large-effect, namely Cognitive Rehearsal (d = 0.81, p < .001) and Memory Substitution (d = 0.82, p < .001). After controlling for pretest ratings, we found a significant between-effect: the Cognitive Rehearsal group differed significantly from the Control in terms of intentions of eating (d = 0.85, p < .05). We conclude that hypnosis with Cognitive Rehearsal suggestions can help to positively impact the intentions of eating., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

This article summarizes four federal criminal cases that illustrate how suggestibility can impact defendants with FASD in the criminal justice system. Four cases were identified via a Google Scholar search of "suggestibility" and "fetal alcohol" in the federal case law database. These cases are illustrative of how FASD can affect legal defendants, including vulnerability to peer pressure, being easily manipulated, insufficient comprehension of legal proceedings, difficulty in assisting legal counsel, learning impairment, acquiescence or higher levels of suggestibility, and difficulty understanding consequences. The cases presented here provided the most comprehensive discussion of FASD and suggestibility issues but are by no means an exhaustive review of case law. Because defendants with FASD are the focal point of this article, we intentionally excluded cases involving eyewitness suggestibility, the suggestibility of child witnesses, and the suggestibility of those under hypnosis. Therefore, this review has been developed to explicate and illustrate problems common to FASD defendants within legal settings, especially regarding risk for suggestibility. The information provided from this discussion may better guide legal professionals who regularly come into contact with persons affected by FASD on how to more readily detect this neurodevelopmental condition and mitigate the likelihood of injustice during criminal proceedings. Additionally, we include suggestions on how to attenuate miscarriages of justice as a result of faulty confessions, wrongful convictions, and vulnerability of suggestibility in persons affected by FASD., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Central to the conceptual spaces framework is the thought that concepts can be studied mathematically, by geometrical and topological means. Various applications of the framework have already been subjected to empirical testing, mostly with excellent results, demonstrating the framework's usefulness. So far untested is the suggestion that conceptual spaces may help explain certain inferences people are willing to make. The experiment reported in this paper focused on similarity-based arguments, testing the hypothesis that the strength of such arguments can be predicted from the structure of the conceptual space in which the items being reasoned about are represented. A secondary aim of the experiment concerned a recent inferentialist semantics for indicative conditionals, according to which the truth of a conditional requires the presence of a sufficiently strong inferential connection between its antecedent and consequent. To the extent that the strength of similarity-based inferences can be predicted from the geometry and topology of the relevant conceptual space, such spaces should help predict truth ratings of conditionals embodying a similarity-based inferential link. The results supported both hypotheses., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Most people recognise and match pictures of familiar faces effortlessly, while struggling to match unfamiliar face images. This has led to the suggestion that true human expertise for faces applies only to familiar faces. This paper develops that idea to propose that we have isolated 'islands of expertise' surrounding each familiar face that allow us to perform better with faces that resemble those we already know. This idea is tested in three experiments. The first shows that familiarity with a person facilitates identification of their relatives. The second shows that people are better able to remember faces that resemble someone they already know. The third shows that while prompting participants to think about resemblance at study produces a large positive effect on subsequent recognition, there is still a significant effect if there is no such prompt. Face-space-R (Lewis, 2004) is used to illustrate a possible computational explanation of the processes involved., (Copyright © 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are conditions arising from prenatal alcohol exposure which results in a range of neurodevelopmental deficits in areas including cognition, memory, language, executive functioning, emotional regulation, and adaptive functioning. Deficits in various neurodevelopmental areas can range from mild to severe, depending on many factors including the quantity and timing of alcohol exposure during the prenatal development period. During interviews in criminal justice, forensic mental health, and legal contexts (e.g., criminal investigations, cross examination, victim interviews, interviews for lawsuits, forensic evaluations, pre-sentence investigations), deficits associated with FASD may elevate the risk of suggestibility and confabulation. These issues can result in negative jurisprudence-related outcomes, including impulsive Miranda rights waivers, incorrect assumptions of competency, inaccurate or incomplete information gathering, misinterpretation of intent, witness reliability issues, court ordered treatment completion problems, probation and parole violations, false confessions, and false accusations. The aim of the present article is to explain the context in which these issues can arise and provide criminal justice, forensic mental health, and legal professionals with key guidelines that can assist in minimizing suggestibility and confabulation when interviewing persons with FASD. We hope that the suggestions and strategies presented in this article will reduce potential obstructions of justice and enhance the quality of information obtained from individuals impacted by FASD. A brief discussion is also provided to identify additional research and training opportunities needed to clarify "best practices" for professionals tasked with evaluating the challenges facing this unique population., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

While there has been consistent evidence that symptoms reported by individuals who suffer from Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance attributed to Electromagnetic Fields (IEI-EMF) are not caused by EMF and are more closely associated with a nocebo effect, whether this response is specific to IEI-EMF sufferers and what triggers it, remains unclear. The present experiment tested whether perceived EMF exposure could elicit symptoms in healthy participants, and whether viewing an 'alarmist' video could exacerbate a nocebo response. Participants were randomly assigned to watch either an alarmist (N = 22) or control video (N = 22) before completing a series of sham and active radiofrequency (RF) EMF exposure provocation trials (2 open-label, followed by 12 randomized, double-blind, counterbalanced trials). Pre- and post-video state anxiety and risk perception, as well as belief of exposure and symptom ratings during the open-label and double-blind provocation trials, were assessed. Symptoms were higher in the open-label RF-ON than RF-OFF trial (p < .001). No difference in either symptoms (p = .183) or belief of exposure (p = .144) was observed in the double-blind trials. Participants who viewed the alarmist video had a significant increase in symptoms (p = .041), state anxiety (p < .01) and risk perception (p < .001) relative to the control group. These results reveal the crucial role of awareness and belief in the presentation of symptoms during perceived exposure to EMF, showing that healthy participants exhibit a nocebo response, and that alarmist media reports emphasizing adverse effects of EMF also contribute to a nocebo response., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To produce an evidence base to formulate guidelines for optimal performance of EEG in patients referred with a possible diagnosis of non-epileptic attack disorder (NEAD)., Methods: 51 UK EEG departments participated in the prospective study. A pro-forma was completed for all consecutive patients aged 5 years and over referred for EEG over a six month period. Information obtained included referral diagnosis, occurrence/type of attack during EEG, the use of suggestion, length of recording and who was present during the EEG., Results: 11,298 patients were entered into the study. 376 psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) occurred of which 337 were considered to be of the habitual type. In those patients suspected of having NEAD prior to referral, the use of verbal suggestion increased the yield of habitual attacks by a factor of three in both adults and children. Using suggestive techniques twice, improved the yield further. Non-habitual attacks occurred equally whether or not suggestion was used. At least 90% of habitual PNES occurred within the first 30 min of recording even in those patients having prolonged EEGs. In EEGs where additional professional personnel were present, PNES occurred more frequently., Conclusion: This large multicentre study provides evidence to inform recommendations for EEG to investigate NEAD. We recommend the use of verbal suggestion at least twice and where practical the presence of additional professional staff. A thirty minute recording is sufficient to record a habitual PNES in most instances., (Copyright © 2018 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A disruption in the sense of agency is the primary phenomenological feature of response to hypnotic suggestions but its cognitive basis remains elusive. Here we tested the proposal that distorted volition during response to suggestions arises from poor metacognition pertaining to the sources of one's control. Highly suggestible and control participants completed a motor task in which performance was reduced through surreptitious manipulations of cursor lag and stimuli speed. Highly suggestible participants did not differ from controls in performance or metacognition of performance, but their sense of agency was less sensitive to cursor lag manipulations, suggesting reduced awareness that their control was being manipulated. These results indicate that highly suggestible individuals have aberrant metacognition of agency and may be a valuable population for studying distortions in the sense of agency., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The gold-standard for the diagnosis of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) is capturing an attack with typical semiology and lack of epileptic ictal discharges on video-EEG. Despite the importance of this diagnostic test, lack of standardisation has resulted in a wide variety of protocols and reporting practices. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of research findings on the diagnostic video-EEG procedure, in both the adult and paediatric literature. We discuss how uncertainties about the ethical use of suggestion can be resolved, and consider what constitutes best clinical practice. We stress the importance of ictal observation and assessment and consider how diagnostically useful information is best obtained. We also discuss the optimal format of video-EEG reports; and of highlighting features with high sensitivity and specificity to reduce the risk of miscommunication. We suggest that over-interpretation of the interictal EEG, and the failure to recognise differences between typical epileptic and nonepileptic seizure manifestations are the greatest pitfalls in neurophysiological assessment of patients with PNES. Meanwhile, under-recognition of semiological pointers towards frontal lobe seizures and of the absence of epileptiform ictal EEG patterns during some epileptic seizure types (especially some seizures not associated with loss of awareness), may lead to erroneous PNES diagnoses. We propose that a standardised approach to the video-EEG examination and the subsequent written report will facilitate a clear communication of its import, improving diagnostic certainty and thereby promoting appropriate patient management.

Adolescents are particularly prone to peer influence. Since group membership modulates the person's tendency to take someone else's viewpoint, here we decided to investigate whether adolescents are influenced by the presence of a peer when taking another person's perspective. A group of adolescents from upper secondary schools in Naples (Italy) had to observe scenes of an actor (an adolescent or an adult) gazing, grasping, gazing/grasping an object or staying still. When required to judge the spatial location of the object, the adolescent participants adopted the actor's viewpoint (third-person perspective) more frequently when the actor was an adolescent rather than when he was an adult and when the adolescent actor grasped the object. Thus, adolescents seem particularly prone to mentally simulate someone else's actions when the other person is a peer. These findings suggest that modulating motor simulation processes via social environmental factors could influence adolescents' perspective taking., (Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Swiss geologist Albert Heim is well known for his pioneering contributions to several aspects of geology, and for his role in establishing the breeding of different kinds of Swiss mountain dogs. In the field of near-death research, it is also recognized that he performed a pioneering study into near-death states of falling mountaineers. It seems hardly known, however, that Heim also influenced suggestion therapy significantly-in particular, the treatment of warts by suggestion. This article provides an overview of Heim's contribution in the latter field of study., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Suggestion in hypnosis has been applied to the treatment of functional neurologic symptoms since the earliest descriptions of hypnosis in the 19th century. Suggestion in this sense refers to an intentional communication of beliefs or ideas, whether verbally or nonverbally, to produce subjectively convincing changes in experience and behavior. The recognition of suggestion as a psychologic process with therapeutic applications was closely linked to the derivation of hypnosis from earlier healing practices. Animal magnetism, the immediate precursor of hypnosis, arrived at a psychologic concept of suggestion along with other ideas and practices which were then incorporated into hypnosis. Before then, other forms of magnetism and ritual healing practices such as exorcism involved unintentionally suggestive verbal and nonverbal stimuli. We consider the derivation of hypnosis from these practices not only to illustrate the range of suggestive processes, but also the consistency with which suggestion has been applied to the production and removal of dissociative and functional neurologic symptoms over many centuries. Nineteenth-century practitioners treated functional symptoms with induction of hypnosis per se; imperative suggestions, or commands for specific effects; "medical clairvoyance" in hypnotic trance, in which patients diagnosed their own condition and predicted the time and manner of their recovery; and suggestion without prior hypnosis, known as "fascination" or "psychotherapeutics." Modern treatments largely involve different types of imperative suggestion with or without hypnosis. However, the therapeutic application of suggestion in hypnosis to functional and other symptoms waned in the first half of the 20th century under the separate pressures of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. In recent decades suggestion in hypnosis has been more widely applied to treating functional neurologic symptoms. Suggestion is typically applied within the context of other treatment approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral, rehabilitative, or psychodynamic therapy. Suggestions are generally symptom-focused (designed to resolve a symptom) or exploratory (using methods such as revivification or age regression to explore experiences associated with symptom onset). The evidence base is dominated by case studies and series, with a paucity of randomized controlled trials. Future evaluation studies should allow for the fact that suggestion with or without hypnosis is a component of broader treatment interventions adapted to a wide range of symptoms and presentations. An important role of the concept of suggestion in the management of functional neurologic symptoms is to raise awareness of how interactions with clinicians and wider clinical contexts can alter expectancies and beliefs of patients in ways that influence the onset, course, and remission of symptoms., (© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In the 19th century it was recognized that neurologic symptoms could be caused by "morbid ideation" as well as organic lesions. The subsequent observation that hysteric (now called "functional") symptoms could be produced and removed by hypnotic suggestion led Charcot to hypothesize that suggestion mediated the effects of ideas on hysteric symptoms through as yet unknown effects on brain activity. The advent of neuroimaging 100 years later revealed strikingly similar neural correlates in experiments matching functional symptoms with clinical analogs created by suggestion. Integrative models of suggested and functional symptoms regard these alterations in brain function as the endpoint of a broader set of changes in information processing due to suggestion. These accounts consider that suggestions alter experience by mobilizing representations from memory systems, and altering causal attributions, during preconscious processing which alters the content of what is provided to our highly edited subjective version of the world. Hypnosis as a model for functional symptoms draws attention to how radical alterations in experience and behavior can conform to the content of mental representations through effects on cognition and brain function. Experimental study of functional symptoms and their suggested counterparts in hypnosis reveals the distinct and shared processes through which this can occur., (© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Suggestive seizure induction is a widely used method for diagnosing psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). Despite seven decades of multidisciplinary research, however, there is still no unified protocol, no definitive agreement on the ethical framework and no consensus on diagnostic utility. This systematic review surveys the evidence at hand and addresses clinically relevant aspects of suggestive seizure induction. In addition to its use for facilitating the diagnostic process, its mechanism of action and utility in elucidating the psychopathology of PNES will be discussed., (Copyright © 2015 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Hypnosis often leads people to obey a suggestion of movement and to lose perceived voluntariness. This inexplicable phenomenon suggests that the state of the motor system may be altered by hypnosis; however, objective evidence for this is still lacking. Thus, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation of the primary motor cortex (M1) to investigate how hypnosis, and a concurrent suggestion that increased motivation for a force exertion task, influenced the state of the motor system. As a result, corticospinal excitability was enhanced, producing increased force exertion, only when the task-motivating suggestion was provided during hypnotic induction, showing that the hypnotic suggestion actually altered the state of M1 and the resultant behavior., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.)

Presenting inconsistent postevent information about a witnessed incident typically decreases the accuracy of memory reports concerning that event (the misinformation effect). Surprisingly, the reversibility of the effect (after an initial occurrence) has remained largely unexplored. Based on a memory conversion theoretical framework and associated refined assessment strategy, we report three experiments to demonstrate that suggestive influence can be completely undone. Initially established misinformation effects were eliminated - even after a period of 5 weeks (Exp. 3) - through (a) an enlightenment procedure ensuring an adequate representation of the memory task as a search for potentially two contradictory items (instead of "the" single "correct" answer) and (b) using a memory state test that unconfounds the performance contributions of item and source memory by assessing them separately. Specifically, memory for original event details that were the target of misinformation was restored to the level of non-misled control performance, and even beyond (Exp. 3). This remarkable reversibility of misinformation influence highlights the central role of memory conversion processes in the misinformation effect (but does not principally exclude the contribution of traditional interference processes). We discuss the compatibility of our findings with previous research and make suggestions for real-world eyewitness interrogation., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Newborn screening leads to improved treatment and disease outcomes, but false-positive newborn screening results may cause distress for parents. The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of families who receive a false-positive newborn screening result in an attempt to discover ways to help improve the newborn screening communication process for families., Methods: This was a qualitative study using two methods of data collection: in-depth, semistructured interviews and focus groups. Participants (N = 27) were parents whose children (ages 6-16 months) underwent follow-up testing after newborn screening and whose follow-up test results indicated that the newborn screening result was a false-positive., Results: Our analysis found that parents who have a false-positive newborn screening result experience five distinct stages. Most parents did not report long-term negative impacts of the experience, but some experienced some residual worry. Participants described effective provider communication as key in mitigating stress. Some parents identified the experience as leading to positive outcomes., Conclusion: Identifying best practices for communication between the health care providers and parents is an essential component in improving the newborn screening process. Further research is needed to discover best practices for communication to minimize potential harm and maximize the benefits of newborn screening.

Object: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients report usually cognitive complaints. They also have frequently comorbid depression that can be considered a possible explanation for their cognitive dysfunction. We evaluated the cognitive performance of patients with CFS in comparison with a control group of healthy volunteers and a group of patients with MDD., Patients and Methods: Twenty-five patients with CFS, 25 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 25 healthy control subjects were given standardized tests of attention, working memory, and verbal and visual episodic memory, and were also tested for effects related to lack of effort/simulation, suggestibility, and fatigue., Results: Patients with CFS had slower phasic alertness, and also had impaired working, visual and verbal episodic memory compared to controls. They were, however, no more sensitive than the other groups to suggestibility or to fatigue induced during the cognitive session. Cognitive impairments in MDD patients were strongly associated with depression and subjective fatigue; in patients with CFS, there was a weaker correlation between cognition and depression (and no correlation with fatigue)., Conclusions: This study confirms the presence of an objective impairment in attention and memory in patients with CFS but with good mobilization of effort and without exaggerated suggestibility., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Side effects of combined oral contraceptives are the most common reason why women discontinue them. Over the past half century, an elaborate mythology about these ill effects has evolved, fueled by rumor, gossip and poor-quality research. In contrast, placebo-controlled randomized trials document that nonspecific side effects are not significantly more common with combined oral contraceptives than with inert pills. These reported nonspecific side effects may reflect the nocebo phenomenon (the inverse of a placebo): if women are told to expect noxious side effects, these complaints occur because of the power of suggestion. Alternatively, nonspecific complaints may simply reflect their background prevalence in the population. Because Level I evidence documents no important increase in nonspecific side effects with oral contraceptives, counseling about these side effects or including them in package labeling is unwarranted and probably unethical. When in doubt, clinicians should err on the side of optimism., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Context: Previous research has shown that the effectiveness of acupressure bands in reducing chemotherapy-related nausea is related to patients' expectations of efficacy., Objective: To test whether an informational manipulation designed to increase expectation of efficacy regarding acupressure bands would enhance their effectiveness., Methods: We conducted an exploratory, four-arm, randomized clinical trial in breast cancer patients about to begin chemotherapy. All patients received acupressure bands and a relaxation CD. This report focuses on Arm 1(expectancy-neutral informational handout and CD) compared with Arm 4 (expectancy-enhancing handout and CD). Randomization was stratified according to the patient's level of certainty that she would have treatment-induced nausea (two levels: high and low). Experience of nausea and use of antiemetics were assessed with a five-day diary., Results: Our expectancy-enhancing manipulation resulted in improved control of nausea in the 26 patients with high nausea expectancies but lessened control of nausea in 27 patients having low nausea expectancies. This interaction effect (between expected nausea and intervention effectiveness) approached statistical significance for our analysis of average nausea (P=0.084) and reached statistical significance for our analysis of peak nausea (P=0.030). Patients receiving the expectancy-enhancing manipulation took fewer antiemetic pills outside the clinic (mean(enhanced)=12.6; mean(neutral)=18.5, P=0.003)., Conclusion: This exploratory intervention reduced antiemetic use overall and also reduced nausea in patients who had high levels of expected nausea. Interestingly, it increased nausea in patients who had low expectancies for nausea. Confirmatory research is warranted., (2010 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The influence, if any, of emotional arousal on memory is a controversial topic in the literature. Much of the research on memory for emotionally arousing events has focused on a few specific issues (e.g., differences in types of details recalled in emotionally arousing and neutral events; increasing ecological validity). Although gaining more recent attention, a neglected area in the literature has been memory for instances of repeated, emotionally arousing events. This issue has important implications for understanding children's ability to recall events in a forensic setting. We review existing findings on memory for emotionally arousing events in general and particularly in children, children's memory for events that occur repeatedly, and then discuss the scarce research on repeated emotionally arousing events and the need for further research in this area. We conclude that although it is clear that children are capable of accurately reporting arousing and repeated experiences, it is also apparent that circumstances both within and outside the control of investigative interviewers influence this ability.

We consider a rumor transmission model with various contact interactions and explore what effect such interactions have on the spread of a rumor, in particular whether they can explain the rumor recursion. Through mathematical analysis and computer simulations, we conjecture that rumor recursion remains a major challenge to mathematical models of rumors beyond our model proposed here.

During general anesthesia the possibility of subconscious perception of intraoperative events is a controversial subject. Some studies found that positive verbal suggestions, or music improved intraoperative relaxation and postoperative recovery. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of prayer and relaxation technique applied while patients are under general anesthesia for open-heart surgery. A randomized, controlled, double-blind trial study included 78 patients who underwent cardiac surgery. During the surgery the patients used a headphone connected to a CD player. They were randomly divided into three groups. One group listened to prayer during the surgery, the other listened to relaxation technique and one, placebo. There was only one significant finding: the prayer group is less likely to believe that prayer would assist conventional medical treatments. Although not statistically significant, we discussed the length of stay (LOS) after surgery and the incidence of sternal wound infection.

The cognitive characteristics of highly hypnotizable subjects (Highs) allow them to easily modify their cognitive and autonomic state. Under hypnosis, Highs receiving cognitive, fear-like stimulation exhibit the cardiovascular changes typical of fear/stress, but also show an EEG pattern indicating a balance between fear-induced arousal and hypnotic relaxation. Indeed, hypnosis is effective in the attenuation of both emotional experience and behaviour (emotional numbing). The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the possible different role of relaxation and suggestion in hypnotic emotional numbing. Tonic skin conductance, respirogram, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were recorded in 3 groups of hypnotized subjects: Group 1 received a fearful guided imagery associated with threat suggestions (Threat) followed by the same fearful suggestion associated with numbing instructions (relaxation and "No-Threat"); Group 2 received the same instructions in the opposite order of presentation; Group 3 received the fearful suggestion with threat instructions twice. The numbing suggestion reduced fear-related emotional experience and autonomic responses; if No-Threat preceded Threat, the heart rate, heart rate variability and blood pressure were also reduced during Threat, in spite of self reports of high negative emotion. Thus, 1) the subjective experience and the autonomic response to fear can be dissociated; 2) the efficacy of numbing suggestion is extended to a subsequent Threat stimulation; 3) habituation does not contribute to the numbing effect. The results indicate that the specific numbing suggestion is the main factor in hypnotic modulation of the experience of fear.

During hypnosis it is easy to induce hallucinations having, for the hypnotized subject, the characteristics and the concreteness of reality. This study was performed to put in evidence the physical effects of hypnotic suggestion of warm tub bathing. 18 volunteers screened for high hypnotizability were studied. They underwent suggestion of forearm in warm water (30 min), suggestion of body in warm water (30 min), and hypnosis without any thermal suggestion (30 min), while blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, forearm flow and resistance, stroke volume, cardiac index and total peripheral resistance were monitored. During suggestion of forearm in warm water, local vasodilation was recorded, with decrease of forearm resistance (-18%, P<0.01) and increase of forearm blood flow (+43%, P<0.01) like in real local passive warming. During suggestion of whole-body in a warm water tub, there was a systemic vasodilation with decrease of total peripheral resistance (-29%, P<0.01) and increase of cardiac index (+54%, P<0.01), like in real total-body passive warming. Body temperature, arterial blood pressure and heart rate were unchanged. During simple hypnosis (sham procedure) no haemodynamic variations were observed. These results are in keeping with the possibility to induce through hypnotic suggestion of heat a physical pattern that is typical of hyperthermia, even without increase in body temperature.

This study was designed in order to examine the effects of different types of hypnotic suggestion on hypnotic analgesia. Generalized relaxation and focused analgesia were induced in seven high-hypnotizable (HH) and eight low-hypnotizable (LH) subjects. Subjects were not aware to which group they belonged. The two groups did not differ in their expectation rates to achieve analgesia under hypnosis. Pain intensity and unpleasantness were rated on visual analogue scales in response to painful electrical stimuli, delivered in random order in five ascending intensities. Both focused analgesia and generalized relaxation decreased pain intensity significantly (P < 0.01). However, stimulus-intensity response curves differed under the two hypnotic conditions. As stimulus intensity became higher pain reduction was enhanced under focused analgesia, while a constant reduction occurred under generalized relaxation. The interaction between hypnotic state and stimulus intensity was significant for focused analgesia (P < 0.05) but not for generalized relaxation (P > 0.07), difference became more pronounced when analyzed for HH subjects only (P < 0.002 for analgesia, P > 0.10 for relaxation). Pain reduction was significantly higher in HH than in LH subjects under focused analgesia (P < 0.02) but not under generalized relaxation (P > 0.5). We conclude that by utilizing two modes of hypnotic suggestions in response to ascending stimuli, we were able to discover two components of hypnotic analgesia. One shows a parallel shift in the stimulus-response function, has features similar to placebo and bears no clear relationship to hypnotic susceptibility. The other shows a slope change in the stimulus-response curve and has a positive relationship to hypnotic susceptibility.

We studied the effect of suggestion and different instructions in a balanced placebo design. One hundred and fifty-nine subjects were randomized into a 2*4 factorial design. All subjects except a control group received a caffeine placebo. Subjects were randomized to a condition which was identical to an earlier study, or received an information about scientifically proven effects of caffeine (factor 1). The second factor varied instructions: subjects were either made to expect coffee, no coffee or were in a double blind condition and were told either coffee or placebo would be applied. Dependent measures were blood pressure, heart rate, well-being and a cognitive task. There was one main effect of the instruction factor (P=0.03) on diastolic blood pressure, with the group 'told caffeine' reporting significantly smaller decrease in diastolic blood pressure than controls and subjects in the double blind condition. There were no other main effects on both the instruction or suggestion factor, and no interactions. Contrary to the literature, instruction effects were very small. This was apparently due to the fact that placebo-caffeine in the dose used in this study--one cup of strong 'coffee'--did not produce expectancy effects strong enough to affect the parameters measured. It is concluded that the placebo-caffeine research paradigm is not suitable for researching instruction effects in Germany, and that reported effects should be reproduced with tighter controls.

This response to McNally challenges the notion that scientific controversy should be waged with smear tactics. McNally's anti-EMDR conclusions are contested as premature and based on red herrings, selective neglect of the literature, and erroneous application of scientific principles. The importance of treatment fidelity is highlighted as a way of distinguishing between EMDR studies of widely varying quality.

To determine if improved postoperative recovery in surgical inpatients receiving intraoperative therapeutic suggestions are applicable in an outpatient population, 70 consenting, unpremedicated adults undergoing elective outpatient hernia repair under general anaesthesia were allocated randomly to either a therapeutic tape (TT) or a comparison tape (CT) group. A standardized general anaesthetic technique was used with propofol, fentanyl or alfentanil, isoflurane and nitrous oxide in oxygen. Pain, and nausea and vomiting were assessed after operation at 30, 60 and 90 min and at 2, 6 and 24 h. The presence of other side effects, such as headache and muscular discomfort, in addition to recall of tape contents, were also evaluated after operation. Absorption ability was measured before operation. The groups were similar in patient characteristics, preoperative, surgical and anaesthetic characteristics, and level of absorption. There were no differences in pain ratings or need for analgesics administered at any time after operation. Nausea/vomiting was experienced significantly fewer times by patients in group TT compared with group CT over the first 90 min (group CT 15%, group TT 4%; P < 0.02), but not over the last three assessment times (group CT 10%, group TT 14%; P < 0.25). The therapeutic tape group experienced fewer side effects over the entire postoperative assessment period (P = 0.03), in particular less headaches (P = 0.03) and less muscular discomfort (P < 0.02). Use of intraoperative therapeutic suggestions could present mildly significant postoperative benefits in outpatients.