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Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Theory of the Three Worlds (TTW) was introduced by Popper and Eccles in 1977 in the attempt to overcome the narrow limits of materialism and determinism in the comprehension of mind–brain and inner–outer world relationships. TTW involved huge epistemological implications and raised strong criticism. Here, a new neurophenomenological version of the TTW is introduced, meeting previous criticism to the TTW. Hopefully, it may be a step toward comprehension of the mind–brain–world relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the term "quantum-like" has been increasingly used in different disciplines, including neurosciences, psychological and socio-economical disciplines, claiming that some investigated phenomena show "something" in common with quantum processes and, therefore, they can be modeled using a sort of quantum formalism. Thus, the increasing use of the term "quantum-like" calls for defining and sharing its meaning in order to adopt it properly and avoid possible misuse. There is a fil rouge linking both pre-Socratic and Eastern philosophies and quantum physics, suggesting an epistemological symmetry between them. In our opinion, the concept of "quantum-like" may be successfully applied to macroscopic phenomena and empirical sciences other than physics when the following two conditions are satisfied: (a) the behavior of the investigated phenomena show logical analogies with quantum phenomena; (b) it is possible to find a criterion of truth based on an experiential/scientific approach applied to a probabilistic model of description of the phenomena. This is only a first small step in the approach to the concept of "quantum-like", which will hopefully be helpful in promoting further discussion and achieving a better definition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare disease, little known to medical and dental practitioners, but with an increasing hospitalization rate over the years. HAE is due to a C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency/dysfunction that leads to an increased vascular permeability. The airways are the most affected, and life-threatening laryngeal swelling may occur. Episodes of HAE have no clear cause, but they can be triggered by anxiety, invasive procedures, and trauma. HAE is an important issue in oral and maxillofacial surgery, otorhinolaryngology, endoscopy, emergency medicine, and anesthesiology because even simple procedures may cause laryngeal edema. Recommendations on the management of HAE include long- and short-term prophylaxis, and treatment for acute attacks, but the importance of controlling anxiety is underestimated. Here, we report on the perioperative management of nine HAE patients scheduled for oral surgery, with a brief review of the literature on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypnosis, despite its effectiveness, has been neglected. The aim of this study is to show the effectiveness and manageability of hypnosis as a stand-alone technique in dentistry. Three patients underwent 6 oral surgery procedures (surgical third-molar removal, implant surgery, maxillary bone augmentation, and mucogingival surgery) with hypnosis as the only anesthetic. Two of the 3 patients had difficulties: 1 was sensitive to multiple chemicals, had Addison disease, and had previously experienced anaphylactic reactions to local anesthetics; the other was allergic to lidocaine and had undergone a paradoxical reaction to pharmacologic sedation in the past. All 3 patients had 2 preoperative sessions each to assess their perioperative risk, level of anxiety, hypnotic susceptibility, and capacity to develop full hypnotic analgesia. On a surgery day, hypnosis was induced and hypnotic analgesia was obtained according to a standard protocol, a procedure taking no more than 9 minutes in each case. Each surgical procedure was then completed successfully with the patient in a painless condition of full relaxation and sense of well-being, with stable cardiovascular parameters. None of the patients required postoperative analgesics, which were prescribed for use as needed. Hypnosis is a valuable tool in dentistry, enabling the safe and rapid relief of anxiety and phobia and raising patient pain thresholds to the level of surgical analgesia. Unlike drugs and equipment, it is always readily available, cost-free, and has no adverse effects when administered by competent professionals. Hypnosis can be used for sedation in most patients and as a stand-alone technique in those with appropriate hypnotic susceptibility, improving the well-being and safety of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies investigating the psychosomatic effects of social isolation in animals have shown that one of the physiologic system that gets disrupted by this environment-affective change is the Endocannabinoid System. As the levels of endocannabinoids change in limbic areas and prefrontal cortex during stressful times, so is the subject more prone to fearful and negative thoughts and aggressive behavior. The interplay of social isolation on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and cannabinoid tone triggers a vicious cycle which further impairs the natural body's homeostatic neuroendocrine levels and provokes a series of risk factors for developing health complications. In this paper, we explore the psychosomatic impact of prolonged quarantine in healthy individuals, and propose management and coping strategies that may improve endocannabinoid tone, such as integration of probiotics, cannabidiol, meditation, and physical exercise interventions with the aim of supporting interpersonal, individual, and professional adherence with COVID-19 emergency public measures whilst minimizing their psycho-physical impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compelling literature has suggested the possibility of adopting hypnotic suggestions to override the Stroop interference effect. However, most of these studies mainly reported behavioral data and were conducted on highly hypnotizable individuals. Thus, the question of the neural locus of the effects and their generalizability remains open. In the present study, we used the Stroop task in a within-subject design to test the neurocognitive effects of two hypnotic suggestions: the perceptual request to focus only on the central letter of the words and the semantic request to observe meaningless symbols. Behavioral results indicated that the two types of suggestions did not alter response time (RT), but both favored more accurate performance compared to the control condition. Both types of suggestions increased sensory awareness and reduced discriminative visual attention, but the perceptual request selectively engaged more executive control of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), and the semantic request selectively suppressed the temporal cortex activity devoted to graphemic analysis of the words. The present findings demonstrated that the perceptual and the semantic hypnotic suggestions reduced Stroop errors through common and specific top-down modulations of different neurocognitive processes but left the semantic activation unaltered. Finally, as we also recruited participants with a medium level of hypnotizability, the present data might be considered potentially representative of the majority of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims at identifying reliable markers of neural preparatory processes during hypnosis. To this goal, we recorded the electroencephalographic activity of 23 volunteers regardless of their hypnotizability score. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were elicited while participants received non‐painful electrical stimuli on the left median nerve in the conditions of relaxation and hypnosis with suggestions of reduced sensation. SEPs analysis was focused on the pre‐stimulus activity and revealed two main components: the prefrontal negativity (pN) and the somatosensory negativity (sN) over the frontal and parietal areas of the scalp, respectively. Results showed reduced amplitudes for both components under hypnosis, mostly for the pN, suggesting a change of top‐down control of parietal and prefrontal areas. Furthermore, the sLORETA source imaging showed a deactivation of the lateral and anterior portions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during the hypnotic state. The present study highlights the downregulation of the PFC as a core aspect of the adopted hypnotic task and confirms the ability of hypnosis to modulate the activity of frontal executive functions. Further, since the majority of participants fell into the medium range of hypnotizability, the present findings could reflect the hypnosis effects in most of the population. This is the first ERP study that recruited participants with a medium level of hypnotizability to identify the neurocognitive effects of the hypnotic hypoestesia. Results reported reduced subjective experience of the electrical stimulation, along with reduced activity of the prefrontal and somatosensory cortex during the preparation stage. This investigation confirms the ability of hypnosis to modulate the executive functions, even in the medium hypnotizables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to observe the relationship between hypnotizability scores, as defined by the Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP), and the following psychological tests: Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), Relationships Questionnaire (RQ), Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), Spontaneity Assessment Inventory-Revised (SAI-R), Testoni Death Representation Scale (TDRS), 20-Item Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI) and The Flexible Regulation of Emotional Expression Scale (FREE Scale), as well as a questionnaire provisionally named the Hypnotic Ability Trace (HAT), including a set of items significantly related to hypnotizability). A structural model based on path analysis showed a positive association between hypnotizability and both spontaneity and extraversion, and a negative association between hypnotizability and both avoidance and cognitive flexibility, which in turn were positively related to HAT. in addition, spontaneity, extraversion and emotional stability were positively associated with the sub-scale of control of the cognitive flexibility, which in turn was negatively related to the HAT. There were no associations among attachment, spontaneity, personality traits and emotional flexibility, while the HAT was positively related to emotional flexibility, openness to experiences and the HIP score. Our results suggest the relevance and role of both cognitive and emotional flexibility as well as their positive interaction with HAT in hypnotic ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypnotic-focused analgesia (HFA) was produced in 20 highly hypnotizable subjects receiving nociceptive stimulations while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The fMRI pattern in brain cortex activation while receiving a painful stimulus was recorded both during nonhypnosis and during HFA. The scanning protocol included the acquisition of a T1-weighted structural scan, 4 functional scans, a T2-weighted axial scan, and a fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) scan. Total imaging time, including localization and structural image acquisitions, was approximately 60 minutes. Without HFA, the subjects reported subjective presence of pain, and the cortex primary sensory areas S1, S2, and S3 were activated. During HFA, the subjects reported complete absence of subjective pain and S1, S2, and S3 were deactivated. The findings suggest that HFA may prevent painful stimuli from reaching the sensory brain cortex, possibly through a gate-control mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Dental anxiety is a common, multifactorial condition with relevant clinical implications for perioperative management and oral health. Recognizing the anxious patient and being able to manage his/her anxiety is a relevant step of dental treatments, allowing to predict and improve patient's cooperation. A relationship between the anxiety of children and parents has been suggested by previous studies, but available data are contradictory and not based on validated anxiety tests. Methods. 124 children (68 males and 56 females; median age 9 years, IQR 8-10) were enrolled in the study. All patients were accompanied by at least one parent (93 mothers and 31 fathers) who signed the informed consent. Children and parents were administered the Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A), before and after the first orthodontic examination, and the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS), before the orthodontic examination only. Parents were also administered the Italian versions of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Form Y1 and Y2, before the orthodontic visit. Data were analyzed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon test. Results. All scores were significantly correlated to each other in children and in parents. Child pre-examination VAS-A was correlated with parent pre-examination VASA. VAS-A increased during the visit in both children and parents. MDAS score was significantly higher in children than in parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to determine the effects of neutral hypnosis and hypnotic temperature suggestions in thermal and pain thresholds compared to resting state. Sixteen healthy medium or high hypnotizable volunteers were enrolled. Hypnotizability was assessed with the Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP); QST was checked in resting state, in neutral hypnosis, after suggestions of heat and cold, and after deinduction. A significant increase in heat threshold was recorded during hypnosis with both cold and heat suggestions compared to neutral hypnosis. HIP induction score showed a linear correlation with changes of temperature thresholds after heat and cold suggestions. Thermal suggestions may result in a significant increase of heat perception thresholds with respect to neutral hypnosis. HIP score is related to thermal threshold changes. QST is a valuable and manageable tool to measure temperature threshold change during hypnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inducing out-of-body experiences in hypnosis (H-OBEs) offers an almost unique opportunity to investigate them under controlled conditions. OBEs were induced as an imaginative task in a resting condition (I-OBE) or in hypnosis (H-OBE) in a group of 15 high hypnotizable subjects. A 32-channel EEG was recorded, and the spectral power and imaginary coherence of each frequency band and each couple of electrodes were calculated. At the end of each session, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) was administered to assess the phenomenological aspects of the subjects' experience. Significantly higher scores in the altered state, positive affect altered experience, and attention subdimensions of the PCI were reported in H-OBE than in I-OBE, which were associated with a significant decrease of power in beta and gamma band activity in right parieto-temporal derivations. These results suggest that the H-OBE may offer a useful experimental model of spontaneous OBEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary Western culture, death has been widely censured because of its conceptual implications; it lies at the boundaries between reductionism and metaphysics. There is not yet an efficacious epistemology able to solve this contraposition and its consequent collision with science and tradition. This article analyzes Near Death Experiences (NDEs) as a prototypical argument in which the two perspectives conflict. Specifically, it analyzes the epistemological antinomies of the ontological representations of death, inhering in passage versus absolute annihilation. Indeed, the NDEs theme permits the examination of the logical contradiction between monistic reductionism and its ontological counterpart to improve the discovery of a new paradigm that integrates the ecological with eternalist views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Dental fear is a universal phenomenon justifying the increasing relevance of psychology and the behavioural sciences to dental training and clinical practice. Pharmacological sedation has been used more and more over the past two decades, in order to relieve dental anxiety and phobia and let the patient face oral surgery safely. Hypnosis is a still underused but powerful non-pharmacological tool in dentistry. It provides an effective sedation whilst maintaining patient collaboration, but it also may help patients recovering from dental anxiety and phobia as well as those with a severe gag reflex. While pharmacological sedation affords a temporary respite and helps the patient to cope with a single procedure, hypnosis can effectively allow for both an excellent sedation in a physiological way and the treatment of patients' anxiety, or substantially decrease the doses used for sedative and analgesic drugs when these are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental fear is an universal phenomenon justifying the increasing relevance of psychology and the behavioral sciences to dental training and clinical practice. It has a wide-ranging and dynamic impact in patients' lives and shows some links with other anxiety disorders, as described in psychiatry, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobia. Pharmacological sedation has been introduced and used more and more over the past two decades, in order to relieve dental anxiety and phobia and let the patient face oral surgery safely. However, its use is only a step in a much more complex approach, the aim of which is helping the patient to overcome their anxiety and get rid of it. The appropriate approach includes several steps: (1) assessing dental anxiety; (2) proper communication and ensuring patients are thoroughly informed; (3) iatrosedation to make patients comfortable and earn their trust; (4) a properly performed local anaesthesia, able to ensure a full analgesia; and (5) hypnosis and/or a wise use of drugs to ensure full anxiety control as needed. latrosedation combines the principles of verbal and non-verbal communication and the emphatic approach pertaining to neurolinguistic programming. Given its effectiveness in relieving dental anxiety, it should be regarded as the essential strategy of communication with the patient. Hypnosis is a powerful tool in dentistry. A relevant advantage, unique to hypnosis, is its twofold role: (1) achieving an effective and even deep sedation and amnesia while maintaining the patient's collaboration; and (2) treating dental anxiety and phobia, helping the patient to overcome it, as well as other associated anxiety disorders (e.g., claustrophobia). As far as eye movement desensitizaion and reprocessing (EMDR) is concerned, there is still a shortage of information on EMDR in dentistry, but it might be potentially useful when dental phobia is related to previous bad experiences involving PTSD components. The superiority of hypnosis and other behavioural techniques in comparison with pharmacological sedation lies in their ability to help patients rid themselves of their dental anxiety. While pharmacological sedation only affords a temporary respite and helps the patient to cope with a single procedure, hypnosis and iatrosedation can effectively allow for both an excellent sedation in a physiological way and the treatment of patient's anxiety, helping them to get rid of their fear and other anxiety components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy of hypnotic suggestion of high performance was evaluated in 10 young healthy volunteers undergoing isometric exercise (hand grip) in basal conditions of usual normal consciousness and in profound hypnosis. To this aim, they were asked to perform dynamometric hand grip at maximal muscular strength and for the longest time compatible with individual tolerance. As a specific suggestion, a hallucination of drinking an 'energizing potion' capable of increasing muscular performance and abolishing the sense of fatigue and pain associated with isometric exercise was induced. Haemodynamic parameters were continuously measured. In comparison to basal conditions of usual consciousness, the exercise performer under hypnotic suggestion was associated with a 12% increase in maximal muscular strength and a 60% increase in exercise length. A greater increase of heart rate, arterial blood pressure, and double product-accompanied by a lower increase of stroke voLume and consequently of cardiac index-was recorded. Nevertheless, exercise-induced vasodilation was comparable in the two conditions, so that the increase in cardiac index observed during hypnotic suggestion was entirely sustained by heart rate increase. Such a condition can only be tolerated for a short time and at the expense of a reduced myocardial (particularly subendocardic) perfusion. It seems therefore that the hypnotic command 'perform over your natural limits' is followed by an increase in strength but particularly in exercise length. In such conditions, physical performance is actually greater than that achieved in normal conditions, as if the subject was able to draw on energies not usually employed in everyday life. This higher performance is unnatural and is sustained by muscular mechanisms activating unfavourable, and potentially dangerous, haemodynamic reflexes. Although hypnosis is a formidable tool in the study of human physiology, its use in the physical world (particularly sporting activities) should be limited to specific controlled con- ditions. In fact, by increasing muscular power and decreasing the sense of fatigue, hypnosis seems to be able to deprive subjects of the natural feedback mechanisms well-synthesized in the sentences 'It's too much for me' or 'I can't take it any more'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are an intriguing and somewhat awkward topic in the scientific medicine. They can be defined as the memory of impressions occurring during life-threatening conditions, including a number of special elements such as out-of-body experiences, pleasant feelings, seeing a tunnel, a light, deceased relatives, or a life review. Their transcendent tonality leads one to consider them a priori as doubtful or non-existent, not relevant, or a matter of psychiatric or organic disturbances at most. The available interpretations of NDEs, despite being scientifically sound, so far remain only speculations or, at best, clues without any demonstration, while others are not even plausible or neglect facts incompatible with the ruling mechanistic and reductionistic view, showing the deep epistemological implications of their explanation. In the past few decades NDEs0 hypnosis, relaxation, and meditation have been included among the so-called altered states of consciousness (ASC), together with other physiological and pathological conditions, such as dreaming, sensory deprivation, hypnagogic states, epilepsy, effects of hallucinogens, and psychotic symptoms. However, the very term ASC, semantically suggesting abnormality, looks to be questionable for physiological mind activities like hypnosis and meditation. NDEs and hypnosis appear as two entirely distinct phenomena, but some common processes probably tinge them. Hypnosis has seldom been used to evoke previous NDEs in an attempt to relive them; conversely, NDE-like experiences have been induced in hypnosis in the context of psychotherapy with the aim of approximating their transformational therapeutic aspects and facilitating both first- and second-order patient changes. Fortunately, an increasing dissatisfaction has emerged in recent years with our merely organic medicine, which has been paralleled by a growing interest in consciousness, subjectivity, and spirituality. There is an increasing need to reappraise our paradigm and the still mysterious mind-brain-world relationship; the so-called ASC also call for a broader approach, to reappraise them in a perspective, including their still misunderstood physiology, merging mechanisms, contents, and meanings in a whole without prejudices, not even scientific ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After rapid hypnotic induction, 12 healthy volunteers underwent hypnotic deepening with relaxation or with fractionation (without relaxation) in a random latin-square protocol. Electroencephalographic occipital alpha activity was measured, low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography was performed, and hemodynamics (stroke volume, heart rate, cardiac output, mean arterial blood pressure, forearm arterial flow and resistance) were monitored in basal conditions and after deepening. After relaxation, both forearm flow (−18%) and blood pressure (−4%) decreased; forearm resistance remained unchanged. After fractionation, a forearm flow decrease comparable to that recorded after relaxation was observed, but blood pressure remained unchanged, leading to an increase of forearm resistance (+51%). Central hemodynamics did not change. Alpha activity increased in the precuneus after fractionation only. In conclusion, both relaxation and fractionation have vasoconstrictor effects, but fractionation is also associated with an increase in peripheral resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Science exists to refute dogmas; nevertheless, dogmas may be introduced when undemonstrated scientific axioms lead us to reject facts incompatible with them. Several studies have proposed psychobiological interpretations of near-death experiences (NDEs), claiming that NDEs are a mere byproduct of brain functions gone awry; however, relevant facts incompatible with the ruling physicalist and reductionist stance have been often neglected. The awkward transcendent look of NDEs has deep epistemological implications, which call for: (a) keeping a rigorously neutral position, neither accepting nor refusing anything a priori; and (b) distinguishing facts from speculations and fallacies. Most available psychobiological interpretations remain so far speculations to be demonstrated, while brain disorders and/or drug administration in critical patients yield a well-known delirium in intensive care and anesthesia, the phenomenology of which is different from NDEs. Facts can be only true or false, never paranormal. In this sense, they cannot be refused a priori even when they appear implausible with respect to our current knowledge: any other stance implies the risk of turning knowledge into dogma and the adopted paradigm into a sort of theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hypnotic focused analgesia, comparable to chemical local anesthesia, has been widely documented in our Laboratory after hypnotic suggestions. This study is aimed at producing hypnotic local anesthesia suggesting that a hand does not belong to the body (body dysmorphism) without any direct suggestions of analgesia. Eight healthy, highly hypnotizable volunteers underwent a cold pressor test keeping left hand at 0 °C, a painful maneuver, being free to stop the test at any time. Such procedure was repeated after hypnotic induction with suggestion of dysmorphism. The highest pain reached at the first minute and at the end of the experiment, both in prehypnotic conditions and during dysmorphism, was subjectively quantified through a decimal visual scale. The objective measure of local anesthesia was based on time of tolerance and on reflex response to pain. During dysmorphism, pain perception was 92.5% lower at 1st minute and 87.5% lower at the end of the experiment (highest tolerable pain) than in prehypnotic conditions, and nullified in 5 subjects (62%). Tolerance to pain (minutes of voluntary immersion in icy water) increased by 315%. While in prehypnotic conditions pain produced a reflex increase in blood pressure, heart rate and resistance, no increase was found during dysmorphism. Hypnotic dysmorphism without any specific suggestion of analgesia reduced and often nullified subjective pain perception. Objective pain tolerance contextually raised, and the reflex stimulation of the sympathetic drive was prevented. Analgesia produced through hypnotic dysmorphism is therefore not a mere consequence of dissociation but a real physiological phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The studies on the relationship between religiosity and the management of trust in postmodern society are an emerging field of research. The psychological contribute of the attachment theory shows how early relationships with the parental figures determine the adult attachment styles and the related dispositions to trust and religiosity. Lack of trust is a critical aspect of the insecure attachment styles: the avoidant and the anxious. This study in focused on these two traits, considering their level of trust compared to religiosity and representations of death. The Interpersonal Trust Survey, The World Health Organization Quality Of Life-Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs, the Testoni Death Representations Scale and the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised were utilized. The results illustrated different expressions of trust in avoidant and anxious styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the efficacy of ketamine and fentanyl-droperidol in pediatric surgical outpatients. It recorded premedication methods, complications, parent's views, and contraindications to hospital discharges upon the administration of the drugs. Also, it found a significant difference in the behavioral score among patients and a delay in patient discharge due to anaesthesia side effects.