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Narcolepsy is a primary neurological sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, and in a majority of patients, cataplexy, which is sudden muscle weakness brought on by strong emotion. While often thought of as an adult condition, narcolepsy can be present at any age and may occur as often as 1 in 2000 individuals. Regardless of age, its effects are far-reaching, resulting in missed school or work days, poor school or work performance and all associated ramifications. In children and young-adults, narcolepsy can masquerade for years as anxiety, depression, attention deficit disorder and even bipolar disorder, thus delaying diagnosis. Most patients diagnosed with narcolepsy receive significant benefit from standard medication. In addition to medication, however, this article describes promising roles for clinical hypnosis in the care of young patients with narcolepsy, including through teaching them how to have more control over their sleepiness and the emotions that can induce cataplexy, while minimizing side effects that can occur when using narcolepsy medication.

The therapeutic alliance is a principal element that allows the dynamics and effects of psychotherapy to be analyzed. In the past half-century, many studies have explored various psychotherapeutic approaches, including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral and systemic psychotherapy, but hypnotherapy has not been addressed. This article presents the first analysis using current methods of verifying and understanding the dynamics of change in hypnotherapy, regarding to the therapeutic alliance. Luborsky et al.'s (1996) revised Helping Alliance Questionnaire (HAq-II) was administered to 59 patients in treatment with psychologists and psychiatrists using Ericksonian hypnosis. Our results suggest that the dynamics of the alliance in the first sessions of hypnotherapy involve factors related more to the therapist's adjustment to the patient than to the progress the patient makes in these initial sessions., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pediatric hypnosis practices are a valuable tool for enhancing emotional self-regulation and promoting resilience. Hypnotically informed materials, toys, and language are simple ways to encourage relaxation and stress management. By learning hypnosis skills such as becoming imaginatively absorbed in imagery, "belly breathing," and using simple toys to promote muscle relaxation, children can access natural and novel ways to navigate life's challenges. An example of these hypnotically informed materials and skills training exercises can be found in Comfort Kits (developed by Dr. Karen Olness circa 1996 and widely distributed by Drs. Culbert and Olness since 2004, used by thousands of children in hospitals and in community settings following natural disasters and wars. Extending this supportive tool and self-hypnosis training into schools presents an opportunity to introduce children to self-directed stress management skills in a practical and convenient manner. Training children to use hypnotically informed self-regulation skills begins to fill the gap between the need for mental health services and available resources. By incorporating hypnotically informed stress management training and self-hypnosis practices into schools, we can equip children with essential tools for improved mental well-being, particularly when they need psychological first aid. Using hypnotic practices and skills can help children manage difficult experiences and develop a sense of comfort and control. Next steps include looking at the feasibility and efficacy of positioning self-directed self-regulation practices (like those found in Comfort Kits and used by clinicians trained in therapeutic pediatric hypnosis) in schools, including through consultation with experts in curriculum development and assessment.

This paper advocates for all child clinicians to learn hypnosis skills as a distinct advantage to enhance their understanding of child development in the treatment of children. It examines the interface of child development and hypnosis. Clinical hypnosis with children follows the child's developmentally determined self-expressions. The clinician must tend to the way in which the child expresses a "problem," structuring treatment goals and pace, and evoking and utilizing opportunities for therapeutic suggestion. This article defines hypnosis as a set of skills and principles. It defines trance as psychoneurobiological plasticity. Eight variables, shared across therapeutic interventions, are explored in the context of working hypnotically with children and adolescents. These are 1) Relationships, rapport, attachment; 2) Attention, absorption, focus; 3) Use of language and therapeutic suggestions; 4) Expectations; 5) Resources; 6) Dissociation and Unconscious; 7) Trauma parallels with trance; 8) Development. Becoming hypnosis-informed is the ABC's, & D, for child clinicians. A case illustrates the application of skills, principles, and variables.

Often overlooked by caregivers because of their ability to adapt to a challenging home life by making few demands themselves, the siblings of special needs children have unacknowledged needs of their own. They often are reluctant to participate in therapy because of their self-concept of having to be the "normal" or "perfect" child. Therapy with these children requires non-pathologizing and attuned rapport building focused on creative self-exploration without requests for change. Two composite case vignettes illustrate the power and versatility of clinical hypnosis to facilitate new learning about becoming visible in the therapeutic relationship and beyond.

Bertrand Russell, philosopher and Nobel prize winner said "Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine." Humor as medicine may be just what the doctor ordered to keep us emotionally, mentally and physically fit. Children are not only wonderful hypnotic subjects, they love laughter and silliness. The therapeutic effectiveness of hypnotherapy with children and adolescents can be enhanced when humor is incorporated into the session. Laughter is fun and free and can be used to strengthen rapport and the therapeutic alliance between the clinician and the child. The neuro-psychological development in children necessary for the appreciation and development of humor will be discussed along with how and why humor and hypnosis can be combined to increase therapeutic effectiveness.

Retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction (R-CPD) causes an inability to belch. This case report describes the successful treatment of R-CPD with the use of hypnosis. Thereafter, the patient was able to burp small amounts of air, and was encouraged to continue his use of hypnosis as needed. Hypnosis and possibly other noninvasive treatments should be used for R-CPD before employment of more invasive and costly treatments such as botulinum toxin administration.

Introduction: Surgical procedures, even under local anesthesia, can induce significant stress and anxiety in patients. Innovative approaches to alleviate anxiety are crucial for improving patient outcomes. Sedatives and anxiolytics may alleviate this discomfort, but they can also subject patients to undesirable side effects, diminishing their overall effectiveness, and, finally, delaying discharge. We present the first case series of a patients underwent inguinal hernia surgical repair under local anesthesia using VRH (HypnoVR) to avoid use of sedatives and anxiolytics., Methods: 12 consecutive patients were enrolled to undergo elective monolateral inguinal hernia repair surgery via an open approach using HypnoVR, at Colorectal Surgery Unit of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. Vital signs (heart rate, SpO2, blood pressure) were detected for all patients before surgery, during local anesthesia, during the whole intervention and after surgery., Results: No intraoperative or postoperative complications have been recorded and only one postoperative complication occurred (seroma), which not required invasive treatment but only drug administration. All patient's vital parameters were recorded during all operative and perioperative phasis. No use of intraoperative analgesic, sedative or anxiolytic were needed. All patients were discharged no later than 3 h after surgery., Conclusion: Virtual Reality Hypnosis is a promising tool for anxiety management in surgical settings. Our series highlights the positive impact of HypnoVR in reduction and management of surgical patient anxiety and discomfort, allowing to perform inguinal hernia repair using only local anesthesia, with good patients' satisfaction., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation (NIBS) stands as an advanced technology embraced by researchers and clinicians to influence thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The prevalent NIBS methods include transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), both proficient in either exciting or depressing neural activities in specific cortical regions. Recently, NIBS has been integrated into hypnosis research with the goal of enhancing hypnotizability. Specifically, the limited existing studies have predominantly focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) due to its significant role in neutral hypnosis. Overall, these studies suggest the fascinating potential to alter hypnotizability and hypnotic phenomena, although the impact on responsiveness to suggestions remains modest. In contrast to psychological and pharmacological methods, NIBS enables alterations in hypnotic experiences that are independent of operators and noninvasive. This grants researchers the chance to employ a causal approach in investigating the brain-behavior relationship associated with suggestibility. The present paper evaluates existing NIBS studies in this domain, delving into the neurocognitive mechanisms at play and their potential implications for hypnosis research and practice.

Background: The use of hypnosis as a means of pain management during labour is becoming increasingly popular. While recent reviews have reported on pain perception, relaxation and other psychological benefits the impact of hypnosis on the use of pharmacological analgesia use has not been specifically examined., Question: For women in labour at term, does antenatal hypnosis instruction compared to no instruction result in decreased use of pharmacological analgesia and influence maternal and infant birth outcomes., Methods: Databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Embase were searched with dates ranging from 1947-2024. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared antenatal hypnosis training to no hypnosis control groups, published in English and reported on pharmacological analgesia use. The Cochrane's Risk of Bias 2 for RCTs was used to assess design quality. Study selection, quality assessment, data extraction and analysis were undertaken by two independent researchers., Findings: Six RCTs met the inclusion criteria (n=2937). The use of hypnosis did not result in a significant reduction in the risk of epidural use (RR. 0.79 95% CI 0.39-1.61) or other forms of pharmacological analgesia. Factors such as blinding of care providers to the participants allocated group may have reduced the chances of successful use of hypnosis. Variations in the presentation of hypnosis between studies may also impact on outcomes., Discussion and Conclusion: This review reports no effect on the use of pharmacological analgesia in women trained in hypnosis antenatally compared with those who were not. Our review does highlight several RCT design characteristics that could impact on the measurement and analysis of the use and efficacy of hypnosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Hypnosis has sometimes been described as an "altered state of consciousness," but what is "unaltered" consciousness? We approach the issue by first exploring the sense of free will, because it can be lost during hypnosis. However, the argument is developed that free will is an illusion, so should not be present in the waking state. Thus, in a sense, hypnosis is a more accurate state of consciousness. The sense of free will is shown to result from an experience of agency, which is often missing in hypnosis. We consider how hypnotic, illusory perceptions are developed, and plausible processes are discussed, but none throws clear light upon what the philosopher David Chalmers called the "hard problem" of consciousness. The paper concludes with a brief evaluation of the possibility that phenomenal consciousness is associated with feedback loops, which transform the simple registering of stimuli into experiences of which we are aware.

This article proposes a multicomponent hypnotherapeutic approach for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) treatment. This new approach combines hypnosis with exposure and response prevention, cognitive reappraisal, principles of acceptance and commitment therapy, and other components. In the presented case study, the patient was treated for four months with both biological and psychological first-line therapy with minor effects; the patient was then treated with hypnotherapy. The patient listened to a recorded hypnosis session, which was constructed according to the new proposed principle. After three weeks of near-daily listening to the session, the patient's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale score decreased by 38.5%, which helped achieve a 51.5% reduction from the initial score, suggesting that this method might have significantly contributed to the therapeutic outcome. In addition, this article discusses the differences between the proposed approach and previously published hypnotherapeutic methods for OCD treatment and the hypothetical use of such an approach for other disorders characterized by compulsive behavior. Further randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of hypnotic approaches for treating OCD.

Background & Aims: Some brain-gut behavioral treatments (BGBTs) are beneficial for global symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). United States management guidelines suggest their use in patients with persistent abdominal pain, but their specific effect on this symptom has not been assessed systematically., Methods: We searched the literature through December 16, 2023, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing efficacy of BGBTs for adults with IBS, compared with each other or a control intervention. Trials provided an assessment of abdominal pain resolution or improvement at treatment completion. We extracted data as intention-to-treat analyses, assuming dropouts to be treatment failures and reporting pooled relative risks (RRs) of abdominal pain not improving with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), ranking therapies according to the P score., Results: We identified 42 eligible randomized controlled trials comprising 5220 participants. After treatment completion, the BGBTs with the largest numbers of trials and patients recruited demonstrating efficacy for abdominal pain, specifically, included self-guided/minimal contact cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (RR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.54-0.95; P score, 0.58), face-to-face multicomponent behavioral therapy (RR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54-0.97; P score, 0.56), and face-to-face gut-directed hypnotherapy (RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.96; P score, 0.49). Among trials recruiting only patients with refractory global IBS symptoms, group CBT was more efficacious than routine care for abdominal pain, but no other significant differences were detected. No trials were low risk of bias across all domains, and there was evidence of funnel plot asymmetry., Conclusions: Several BGBTs, including self-guided/minimal contact CBT, face-to-face multicomponent behavioral therapy, and face-to-face gut-directed hypnotherapy may be efficacious for abdominal pain in IBS, although none was superior to another., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest None to declare.

Question: Dyspnoea persisting despite treatments of underlying causes requires symptomatic approaches. Medical hypnosis could provide relief without the untoward effects of pharmacological approaches. We addressed this question through experimentally induced dyspnoea in healthy humans (inspiratory threshold loading (excessive inspiratory effort) and carbon dioxide stimulation (air hunger))., Material and Methods: 20 volunteers (10 women, aged 21-40 years) were studied on four separate days. The order of the visits was randomised in two steps: firstly, the "inspiratory threshold loading first" versus "carbon dioxide first" group (n=10 in each group); secondly, the "medical hypnosis first" versus "visual distraction first" subgroup (n=5 in each subgroup). Each visit comprised three 5-min periods (reference, intervention, washout) during which participants used visual analogue scales (VAS) to rate the sensory and affective dimensions of dyspnoea, and after which they completed the Multidimensional Dyspnea Profile., Results: Medical hypnosis reduced both dimensions of dyspnoea significantly more than visual distraction (inspiratory threshold loading: sensory reduction after 5 min 34% of full VAS versus 8% (p=0.0042), affective reduction 17.6% versus 2.4% (p=0.044); carbon dioxide: sensory reduction after 5 min 36.9% versus 3% (p=0.0015), affective reduction 29.1% versus 8.7% (p=0.0023)). The Multidimensional Dyspnea Profile showed more marked sensory effects during inspiratory threshold loading and more marked affective effects during carbon dioxide stimulation., Answer to the Question: Medical hypnosis was more effective than visual distraction at attenuating the sensory and affective dimensions of experimentally induced dyspnoea. This provides a strong rationale for clinical studies of hypnosis in persistent dyspnoea patients., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: C. Morélot-Panzini reports grants from Fondation du Souffle and lecture honoraria from Chiesi, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: L. Serresse reports lecture honoraria from Chiesi and travel support from SOS Oxygene, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: T. Similowski reports consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Chiesi, KPL Consulting, Lungpacer Inc. and OSO-AI; lecture honoraria from Chiesi and Vitalaire; stock or stock options from AUSTRAL Dx and HEPHAI; and the following patents: WO2008006963A3, WO2012004534A1, WO2013164462A1; outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: The remaining authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright ©The authors 2024.)

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate whether and to what extent perioperative hypnosis and relaxation techniques are used in German anaesthesia departments, what they are, where any difficulties in their application lie and how great the interest in this type of therapy is. Another research question was to find out whether there are specialist areas in which these methods are used more frequently than in other specialist areas., Methods: A descriptive survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire in all hospitals with anaesthesia departments in Germany. 1124 questionnaires were sent out by post. The survey period was five months from 27/02/2023 to 31/07/2023. The clinic directors of all anaesthesiology departments in German hospitals were surveyed., Results: 476 departments (42%) responded by pre-paid envelope. Of these, only 39 (8%) use hypnosis and relaxation techniques perioperatively. These are mostly progressive muscle relaxation, hypnotic trance according to Erickson, calming words and suggestions or the use of virtual reality (e.g. using VR-glasses)., Conclusions: Hypnosis techniques have been shown in many studies to be effective in increasing patient comfort (less anxiety and stress) and reducing both the need for medication and perioperative pain. The therapy is rarely used in Germany, although once established it can be easily integrated into perioperative procedures. Many departments have shown great interest in the topic. In the interests of patients, a structural change should be considered to promote the use of hypnotic procedures., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Every time a patient undergoes a medical procedure, unpredicted personal stress occurs. According to the available literature, the hypnotic communication technique has been used to reduce stress and pain during several major invasive procedures. The primary goal of this study was to compare the effectiveness of hypnotic communication combined with buffered Lidocaine, versus buffered Lidocaine alone, on patients' negative emotions while undergoing Peripherally Inserted Central Venous Catheter (PICC) placement. Secondary aims were evaluating patients' pain, satisfaction, and procedure timing and costs. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in an Italian Hospital involving patients who needed a PICC, with any disease or condition, aged over 18, cognitively oriented, able to hear, and willing to give consent. Emotional assessment was performed using the Emotion Thermometer Tool. Sixty-seven subjects were enrolled: 17 refused to participate, and 25 were randomly assigned to each group. The results showed a statistically significant higher decline in the total Emotion Thermometer Tool score for the experimental group using hypnotic communication. A significant mean reduction in anger and depression was also observed, while both groups reported low levels of perceived pain. Hypnotic communication appears to be a successful method for reducing emotional stress during PICC placement. However, further research is needed to determine the relationship between hypnotic communication, emotional distress, and pain perception in patients undergoing central vascular catheter insertion.

Sleep disturbance is frequently reported by women during the menopausal transition due to various physiological changes and environmental factors. Insomnia is a critical treatment target for its deleterious effects on daytime functioning and quality of life and increased risk of developing a depressive disorder. Due to medication side effects and patient preferences, there is increased interest in the use of psychological treatments that address the myriad of menopausal symptoms, including cognitive-behavioural therapy, clinical hypnosis and mindfulness-based therapies. The objective of this article is to review the effects of psychological treatments for menopausal symptoms on sleep disturbance in peri-/postmenopausal women. We conducted a systematic review of the literature using PubMed and reference lists from inception until May 2023, including 12 studies that evaluated sleep as a secondary outcome. Most studies found that group and self-help (guided and unguided) cognitive-behavioural therapies and clinical hypnosis for menopausal symptoms have positive effects on sleep among women with significant vasomotor symptoms. There was preliminary support for mindfulness-based stress reduction. Future research including more diverse samples and women with sleep disorders is needed. Evaluating the implementation of psychological therapies in clinics where menopausal women seek care is an important next step., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Trypanophobia (needle phobia) frequently occurs because of negative encounters with medical procedures and/or needles. Trypanophobia ranges in severity from causing mild anxiety, including apprehension about medical procedures, to severe anxiety and complete avoidance of medical care. In this case report, we describe a 29-year-old who underwent hypnosis-facilitated age regression therapy to improve his trypanophobia. Through the guidance of his subconscious, he realized his reaction to needles may not have been directly related to a difficult medical procedure he had undergone at the age of two. The patient's subconscious turned his attention to the anxiety he felt from being separated from his mother at the time of the procedure.

Sleep disturbances take many forms. Negative health consequences are associated with nearly all of them. Insomnia, the most common sleep disturbance, can present as an inability to initiate sleep or to maintain sleep such that the restorative benefits of sleep are limited. This case report describes a client in her 60s who sought treatment for early morning awakening that persisted for four years despite the use of sleep-inducing medications. Her successful course of treatment utilized hypnotic suggestions and interactions that targeted distinctive features of the sleep cycle as well as her daily transition from wakefulness to sleep to early morning reawakening. The article highlights the coordination of neurophysiological features of sleep, psychological dynamics at play while awake and in her dream sleep, and how attention to their interplay utilizing hypnosis enabled the client to reestablish restorative sleep patterns in a treatment process spanning less than a dozen treatment sessions.

This study investigated the impact of hypnotic suggestions on improving attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH). The study administered the Chinese version of the ATSPPH scale on 303 college students, of which 61 with low levels of ATSPPH were recruited as the participants (male: 18; female: 43). All participants were tested with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A, prior to the formal experiment and assigned with balancing hypnotic susceptibility in hypnotic suggestion, relaxation, or control groups. The main results were as follows: (1) counter-attitudinal information significantly improved explicit ATSPPH only for the hypnotic suggestion and relaxation groups, (2) the hypnotic suggestion group exhibited improvement in implicit ATSPPH and (3) a difference was observed between explicit and implicit attitudes in the process of providing counter-attitudinal information when changing ATSPPH.

The clinical hypnosis literature suggests that confidence in new clinical skills is an important learning outcome; however, many current training standards for clinical hypnosis do not address outcomes such as confidence. To address this deficit, this pilot study asked whether clinical hypnosis instruction offered by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) leads to learner confidence. A one-group observational A-B survey-based design examined baseline, expected, and post-training confidence in the use of skills necessary for clinical hypnosis. Twenty clinicians in attendance at an ASCH Fundamentals Workshop answered Likert-type questionnaire items immediately before and after clinical hypnosis training. The average change in confidence ratings from pre-training to post-training was +0.80, resulting in a significant effect, p  = .022, suggesting that such workshops can lead to learner confidence. This work represents initial research on an affective learning objective in clinical hypnosis training, as well as the potential utility and relevance of affective learning objectives in such training. Future researchers may wish to further investigate and formalize this and other affective learning objectives in this discipline.

Hypnotherapy has emerged as a potential alternative to improve exclusive breastfeeding rates, particularly in countries like Indonesia where they are below optimal levels. This study aims to evaluate the impact of audio hypnotherapy on the psychological, exclusive breastfeeding behavior, the OXTR protein and mRNA expression gene OXTR in mothers of infants aged 0-6 months. This study employed a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial design, conducted from November 2022 to May 2023 in 11 primary health centers. The study population included breastfeeding mothers with infants aged 0-6 months, with a total sample size of 70 respondents who were randomly divided into intervention (received audio hypnotherapy) and control groups (received standard care). The psychological condition was measured using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Exclusive breastfeeding behavior was assessed based on both quality and quantity. Genetic factors were evaluated through mRNA OXTR expression using real-time PCR and protein OXTR levels using ELISA. Analyzing data using linear and logistic regression models. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed significant differences in psychological condition ( p  < .0001). There were big differences in the exclusive breastfeeding behavior ( p  < .0001), as well as in the amounts of protein OXTR and mRNA expression of the OXTR gene ( p  < .0001). We recommend the implementation of audio hypnotherapy as an effective complementary therapeutic approach to manage the psychological well-being, exclusive breastfeeding behavior, the mRNA expression of the OXTR gene and levels of OXTR protein in mothers of infants aged 0-6 months.

This study used data from a randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of hypnosis with analgesic suggestions relative to hypnosis with nonspecific suggestions to explore two areas. The first was the immediate effects of each hypnosis session and their relevance to the treatment induced change in pain intensity. The second was the identification of variables associated with the beneficial effects of hypnosis treatment in the form of reducing pain intensity and pain quality. The predictive value of the initial treatment response, hypnotizability, and the dichotomous variable of pain medication use were examined. Both interventions resulted in similar significant reductions in pain intensity after each session, but without a cumulative effect. The initial response correlated positively and moderately with pain intensity decreases induced by the complete hypnosis treatment. There was only a weak association between hypnotizability and pain quality improvement. Only participants not taking pain medications achieved a meaningful reduction in pain outcomes. Each hypnosis session results in an immediate reduction in chronic nociplastic pain intensity, and a fruitful first session may be a positive signal to continue therapy. Even patients with low hypnotizability can obtain beneficial outcomes. Pain medication use may become a new predictor in hypnosis research, as significant decreases in pain intensity and pain quality occurred only in the absence of pharmacotherapy. However, the results of this study require confirmation in further research with longer treatment periods.

Hypnotherapy combined with cognitive therapy is an effective way to intervene anxiety problems, which also responds to the call that using hypnotherapy to treat somatic disorders should become a trend in the future. This paper constructs an evaluation index of the intervention effect of cognitive hypnotherapy on anxiety patients, and then uses neural network to evaluate its effect. At last, we have completed the following work: 1) This paper constructs the theoretical basis related to this topic after searching and sorting out the related literature on anxiety disorders and hypnotherapy at home and abroad. 2) This paper constructs the evaluation index system of the intervention effect of cognitive hypnotherapy on anxiety patients, and then introduces the basic principle and structure of DBN model. 3) Experiments are used to determine the best values for the DBN model's parameters. To accomplish this, you will need to input the experimental data into the trained model and compare the evaluation results from experts with the model's predictions. The experimental findings of this study demonstrate the great accuracy of the DBN model presented in this work for assessing the effectiveness of cognitive combination hypnotherapy for anxiety disorders.

Current Approaches and Methods of Systemic Therapy and Counselling: KIKOSR Combines Techniques and Systems Therapy with children and teens could often be more effective and sustainable if the therapeutic process included not only the family environment, but also the more distant environment, such as teachers and pedagogues from school and leisure activities. It is important to take a look at the principles of hypnotherapeutic and systemic therapy approaches and perhaps even beyond. Whenever working according to guidelines or manuals no longer shows success, it can be extremely helpful to interrupt those patterns by making use of a combination of different therapeutic techniques, such as PEP®, impact and embodiment techniques, as well as resource and solution-oriented approaches. KIKOS® is an approach that promotes tolerance of ambiguity in all systems, regardless of the basic therapeutic orientation, by combining techniques and systems while taking into account the individuality of client and practitioner.

Background: Patients with chronic illnesses, especially rare autoimmune and/or systemic diseases associated with significant diagnostic uncertainty, have a representation of their illness and a sometimes prolonged hospitalization experience that can be traumatic and anxiety-provoking., Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a non-medicinal medical hypnosis intervention in reducing the stress state and improving the experience of patients hospitalized in an internal medicine department., Methods: We conducted a prospective study of 24 patients hospitalized in the Internal Medicine Department of Lille University Hospital in 2023. Twelve patients received a non-drug medical hypnosis intervention known as the "place of safety" (case group) and were compared with 12 patients who did not (control group). Stress was assessed by the STAI questionnaire and hospitalization experience by a satisfaction questionnaire., Results: The 24 patients, 13 of whom were women, had a mean age of 55±17 years at inclusion. On admission to hospital, the median STAI-ETAT between the two groups was 43.5 (38.0; 56.6) in the case group versus 42.0 (37.0; 48.5) in the control group (P=0.45). In the case group, the median STAI-ETAT questionnaire taken immediately after the hypnosis session was significantly lower than at the start of hospitalization (30.0 [25.5; 36.5] vs. 43.5 [38.0; 56.5] P=0.003), indicating a significant reduction in stress. At the end of hospitalization, there was also a significant persistence of the median significant reduction between cases and controls (29.5 [26.5; 35.0] for cases vs. 41.5 [33.5; 45.5] for controls P=0.002). Experience of hospitalization was better in the case group (median 5.0 [4.5; 5.0] vs. 4.0 [4.0; 4.5], P=0.016)., Conclusion: This study suggests that medical hypnosis is a promising non-medicinal supportive intervention for reducing perceived stress and improving the experience of stress in patients hospitalized on an internal medicine ward., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.)

Pediatric hypnosis is an extremely valuable adjuvant therapeutic tool to reduce pain and ameliorate anxiety in children undergoing procedures and pediatric anesthesia. This perspective summarises; why Integrating hypnosis into practice has this potential, some techniques that are particularly useful in this setting, the training oppurtunities to learn more, and recommendations for future pediatric anesthesia hypnotic research. There is definite capacity for change by Integrating hypnosis into our practice. Not only will this ensure more capable, confident children who present for peri-operative care but also reduce costs and the environmental impact of the pharmaceutical agents we currently employ for sedation and anxiolysis., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The effectiveness of hypnosis-based pain management is well-established. However, mechanisms of action and specific effective components are not well understood. The sociocognitive theory of hypnosis proposes that the effectiveness of hypnosis for pain management is determined by the nonspecific features of response expectancy and context. We tested this claim by contrasting the effectiveness of 2 hypnoanalgesia procedures in a within subjects design using the cold pressor task. The 2 procedures were identical, including analgesic suggestions, except for the hypnosis induction used. One condition involved a well-established hypnosis induction, including suggestions for focused attention, relaxation, and deepening. The other condition included a sham induction procedure using only white noise. In our confirmatory analysis (N = 46), we found that pain tolerance increased compared to baseline equivalently in the conventional and sham induction conditions (mean increase 13.7 and 12.4 seconds respectively, average within subject difference -1.27 seconds, 90% confidence interval [CI] = -8.46, 5.90). This finding supports the claim of the sociocognitive theory considering that response expectancy for pain reduction was also equivalent between the conditions (average difference 2.30, 90% CI = -2.23, 6.84). However, self-reported hypnosis depth was greater in the conventional induction condition (average difference -.78, 90% CI: -1.36, -.07), which contradicts sociocognitive predictions. Our findings indicate that conventional procedural elements of hypnosis inductions, such as suggestions for focused attention, relaxation, and deepening, may not be necessary to achieve acute pain reduction in an experimental setting when the hypnosis intervention includes analgesic suggestions. PERSPECTIVE: This study assessed the necessary effective components of hypnosis-based analgesia interventions. Our findings suggest that procedural features such as suggestions for focused attention, relaxation, and deepening may not be necessary for hypnoanalgesia as long as pain relief suggestions are present, and the hypnosis context and response expectancy are established. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered on Open Science Framework with the registry number e96xk, available at https://osf.io/e96xk., (Copyright © 2024 United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The driver in road hypnosis has not only some external characteristics, but also some internal characteristics. External features have obvious manifestations and can be directly observed. Internal features do not have obvious manifestations and cannot be directly observed. They need to be measured with specific instruments. Electroencephalography (EEG), as an internal feature of drivers, is the golden parameter for drivers' life identification. EEG is of great significance for the identification of road hypnosis. An identification method for road hypnosis based on human EEG data is proposed in this paper. EEG data on drivers in road hypnosis can be collected through vehicle driving experiments and virtual driving experiments. The collected data are preprocessed with the PSD (power spectral density) method, and EEG characteristics are extracted. The neural networks EEGNet, RNN, and LSTM are used to train the road hypnosis identification model. It is shown from the results that the model based on EEGNet has the best performance in terms of identification for road hypnosis, with an accuracy of 93.01%. The effectiveness and accuracy of the identification for road hypnosis are improved in this study. The essential characteristics for road hypnosis are also revealed. This is of great significance for improving the safety level of intelligent vehicles and reducing the number of traffic accidents caused by road hypnosis.

We investigated whether adding hypnosis to CBT (CBTH) improved treatment outcomes for MDD with a two-armed, parallel-treated, randomized-controlled trial using anonymous self-report and clinician-blinded assessments. Expectancy, credibility, and attitude to hypnosis were also examined. Participants ( n  = 66) were randomly allocated to 10-weekly sessions of group-based CBT or CBTH. LMM analyses of ITT and Completer data at post-treatment, six-month and 12-month follow-up showed that both treatments were probably efficacious but we did not find significant differences between them. Analyses of remission and response to treatment data revealed that the CBTH Completer group significantly outperformed CBT at 12-month follow-up ( p  = .011). CBTH also displayed significantly higher associations between credibility, expectancy and mood outcomes up to 12-month follow-up (all p  < .05 or better), while attitude to hypnosis showed one significant association ( r  = -0.57, p  < .05). These results suggest that hypnosis shows promise as an adjunct in the treatment of MDD but a larger sample size is required to fully test its merits.

This study presents the norms and psychometric properties for a shortened online adaptation of a French version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A). Assessment of involuntariness and subjective intensity was added to the traditional scoring. A total of 373 individuals completed an online hypnotizability screening test on their own computer. Participants received the HGSHS:A script through an audio recording lasting about 30 minutes. The results showed that the item difficulty and reliability of the short online HGSHS:A were consistent with the offline version of the scale and with the reference samples. Involuntariness and subjective intensity corrections improved significantly the accuracy in the measurement of the scale and helped to dissociate between different phenomenologies in hypnotic responding. These findings indicate that the short online HGSHS:A is a reliable tool for measuring hypnotizability. Moreover, we suggest that using complementary measures of involuntariness and subjective intensity helps to shed more light on hypnotizability as part of a multi-componential approach to hypnotic response.

Despite advancements in medication,managing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remains challenging, necessitatingalternative control methods. Gut-directed hypnotherapy, known for alleviating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), is debated as an IBD management method. Anextensive search across PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Clinicaltrials.govuncovered five randomized trials and two case series involving IBD patients undergoing hypnotherapy. A small trial reported statistically significant remission at one year ( p  = .04), but larger trials, including one with 63 patients, showed no significant gastrointestinal improvements. The first case series noted post-intervention reduction in the mediators of inflammation in rectal mucosal, without long-term monitoring. The second case series observed the absence of flare episodes in 12 of 13 ulcerative colitis patients during follow-up, possibly influenced by the simultaneous use of two drugs alongside hypnotherapy. Psychological outcomes, demonstrated no significant differences between hypnotherapy and control groups. While current literature doesn't decisively support hypnotherapy for managing IBD symptoms, it underscores the importance of further research, including randomized clinical trials, to thoroughly assess its effectiveness in this context.

Depression is a complex, multi-dimensional disorder that is recognized as a leading cause of human suffering and disability. A wide variety of treatments, both physical and psychological, have been developed to lessen the burden on depressed individuals and those they may affect. Hypnosis has been shown to be an effective vehicle for delivering psychological treatments for alleviating depression in a number of studies, but it is always a challenge to increase the effectiveness of suggestions given in hypnosis. The addition of music to enhance hypnotic approaches has been studied and received substantial support for its potential effectiveness. This article explores the merits of incorporating music into the delivery of hypnosis sessions and offers specific recommendations for the use of rhythmic methods as a means of deepening hypnosis and increasing the impact of one's suggestions for reducing depressive ruminations. Five case examples are provided to illustrate the successful use of this integrative approach to treatment.

Hypnosis is an effective treatment option for a variety of concerns. Past research has suggested that those who score in the high range of hypnotizability initially show greater improvement than those in the low range. A post hoc analysis was conducted to examine the extent to which hypnotizability modulates the reduction of hot flash frequency. Average number of hot flashes reported during hypnosis treatment and a 12-week follow-up were grouped according to participants' level of hypnotizability. Using baseline data, the reduction percentage of hot flash frequency was plotted and visually examined to determine when a clinically significant reduction (50%) in hot flashes was reached. Our results suggested that, regardless of hypnotizability, participants ultimately obtained a 50% reduction in hot flash frequency. Interestingly, participants who were rated as either moderately or highly hypnotizable achieved a 50% reduction by Week 3 while those of low hypnotizability did not cross the 50% reduction threshold until the 12-week follow-up. Implications from these findings include the importance of assessing hypnotizability in clinical settings to better tailor treatment dose and expectations., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

This article provides an edited transcript of a moderated discussion between depression experts Irving Kirsch and Michael Yapko regarding the role of antidepressants in the treatment of major depression. It includes references to the role of expectancy and the merits of hypnosis in treatment. This presentation was sponsored by MindsetHealth , an Australian-based digital therapeutics company (mindsethealth.com) and took place online on March 28, 2023. As a webinar offered at no cost, it was open to anyone with an interest in the subject. Dr. Kirsch described his landmark research on the placebo effect and its curious relationship to the presumed merits of antidepressant medications. Dr. Yapko discussed the limitations of drug treatment based on the substantial evidence indicating that depression is much more a social problem than a medical one. The moderator for this discussion is Claire Davidson, who serves as the Research Lead at MindsetHealth . Drs. Kirsch and Yapko both serve on the MindsetHealth Scientific Advisory Board.

Depression commonly features the experience of hopelessness and a loss of the ability to imagine and believe in one's positive future. This article considers this important feature of depression and how effective recovery from depression includes the restoration of hope and a belief in actualizing a positive future. It provides in detail a treatment strategy that is focused on cocreating with the patient a positive therapeutic outcome in the patient's future and encourages patients to internalize a representation of the future experience of recovery and restoration of hope. This approach is described in detail and begins by guiding the client suffering from depression to experience a positive therapeutic outcome during hypnosis. This is followed by having the client internalize this positive resolution and recovery and integrate this experience on conscious and subconscious levels. As the client "returns from the future" to the present, bringing back with them this experience of having achieved a resolution and recovery from depression, this corrective emotional experience can affect their daily behavior in the present arising from a significant change in thoughts, feelings, and actions. Case examples that illustrate the use of the future focused strategy in clinical practice are included.

Depressive disorders are common conditions associated with high personal and economic burdens. The best treatment outcomes occur in patients receiving both psychotherapy and antidepressant medications. Behavioral activation is one approach within the most widely available and studied psychotherapy frameworks (cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT) utilized for depression, and is effective in treating depression even in isolation from the rest of the CBT approach. Many hypnosis treatments for depression have been developed to incorporate various CBT techniques, including behavioral activation. However, research regarding the applications of hypnosis to facilitate behavioral activation has been slow to emerge. Addressing this relative gap in the literature may be possible through a broader review of the relevant literature. There is quality evidence speaking to the efficacy of diverse clinician-guided visualization or imagery exercises in the treatment of depression by means of behavioral activation. While not explicitly hypnosis, the similarities of these interventions to more typical hypnosis interventions are highly salient. Clinicians and researchers interested in hypnosis's applications to treating depression would benefit from adopting a more comprehensive consideration of the relevant literature.

Bedwetting is a common condition in children. We evaluated the effectiveness of medical hypnosis as a first-line therapy in children with primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE). The study enrolled children in a prospective single-center pilot clinical trial consisting of 1 month diary of dry nights prior to using the commercially available hypnosis intervention (www.keepingthebeddry.com), followed by 3 consecutive months diary following intervention. Seventeen children aged 8 to 15 years old were enrolled and 12 recorded at least 1 month data after the hypnosis intervention. The median dry nights prior to intervention was 8 (0-17) days and improved to 15.5 (7-28) days by the third month post-intervention ( P = .0033). All patients who completed the study showed an improvement. Self-guided medical hypnosis therapy showed significant improvement in dry nights without any side effects and any identifiable risk to patients. It should be considered for use in children as first-line therapy for PMNE., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The national conversation continues to focus on the negative impact of social media on teens/young people. The lingering effects of the pandemic revealed sharp increases in the common practice of "compare and despair" as well as higher rates of loneliness, isolation, depression, and self-harming behaviors. In May 2023, the US Surgeon General warned that social media "is the defining public issue of our time" and is driving the teen mental health crisis. These concerns for the mental health of humans across the globe are real and dramatic. Social media's impact on young people can be neutral, negative, positive or shades of each. The hypnosis community has an opportunity to be a more vital presence in helping young people navigate, manage, and reduce negative social media impact and to harness social media's very positive contributions, many of which are well documented. This article focuses on assessing social media use in teens and young adults, identifying developmental tasks being practiced on social media, and how factors such as time spent on social media and social media experiences have promoted trauma, stress, depression and anxiety. In addition, it will consider some of the ways in which the isolating effects of COVID-19 have further impacted well-being. Finally, the article will discuss how hypnotherapists can leverage social media to foster stronger ego strengthening using therapeutic interventions that employ hypnosis, hypnotherapy techniques and interventions, hypnotic scripts, and social media to lower mental health risks in teens/young adults.

Background: Functional dyspepsia is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder that is often challenging to treat. Psychotherapeutic interventions have been proposed as an alternative or adjunctive approach to conventional treatments, but their efficacy remains unclear., Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions in the treatment of functional dyspepsia., Methods: A comprehensive search of electronic databases was conducted, from inception to March 2023, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effects of psychotherapeutic interventions on patients with functional dyspepsia. The primary outcome measures were gastrointestinal symptoms, quality of life, depression, and anxiety. Data were extracted and analyzed using Review Manager 5.3 software. The risk of bias of the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool., Results: Sixteen RCTs comprising 1550 patients with functional dyspepsia were included in the meta-analysis. The types of psychotherapeutic interventions used in the included studies were cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), hypnotherapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). The control groups were usual care, placebo, supportive therapy, or no treatment. The meta-analysis showed that psychotherapeutic interventions had a significant effect on reducing gastrointestinal symptoms,depression and anxiety in patients with functional dyspepsia. However, no significant improvement was observed in the quality-of-life scores of patients who received psychotherapeutic interventions compared to those in the control group., Conclusion: Psychotherapeutic interventions, such as CBT, hypnotherapy, and MBSR, could be a useful adjunct to conventional treatments for functional dyspepsia, as they were found to significantly reduce gastrointestinal symptoms and anxiety in patients. However, further studies are needed to assess the long-term effects and generalizability of these interventions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest, (© Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica.)

This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of studies that explore the use of hypnotherapy as a treatment for depression, adhering to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A total of 232 articles were identified through systematic search strategies in four databases. Following rigorous screening, 14 studies, varying from case studies to randomized controlled trials, were included in the final review. The age range of participants spanned from 18 to 70 years, and the number of female participants generally exceeded that of males in these studies. Hypnotherapy was found to be frequently used as an adjunct treatment alongside various types of psychotherapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy and often included techniques like hypnotic induction, ego strengthening, and self-hypnosis. The treatment duration varied from 3 sessions to as long as 20 weekly sessions. Most importantly, the majority of the studies found hypnotherapy to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression, with some studies suggesting it has superior effects to antidepressant treatment in areas such as overall health and vitality. This review highlights the potential of hypnotherapy as a viable treatment option for depression and highlights the need for further controlled studies to establish its efficacy.

Sleep disturbance is a public health problem among aging adults (age 45 and older). While aging adults are at an elevated risk for sleep disturbance, many also have high rates of mistrust toward psychological interventions, such as self-hypnosis, which may be beneficial for sleep. The purpose of the study was to assess factors that may impact utilization of self-hypnosis for sleep, including willingness, preferences, and access among informed aging adults. 244 aging adults were recruited. After reading an information sheet on self-hypnosis for sleep, participants completed questionnaires assessing sleep related worry, stress, and perceptions of self-hypnosis for sleep, including willingness, benefits, barriers, preferences, and access. The findings indicated that informed aging adults were willing to engage in self-hypnosis for sleep, regardless of their race or gender. Furthermore, they preferred technological delivery methods (i.e. telehealth or smartphone apps) with flexible scheduling options. However, very few participants endorsed having access to self-hypnosis.

About two-thirds of college students rate their sleep as suboptimal which is associated with a variety of additional issues. Poor sleep is shown to follow certain pre-sleep cognitive activity that inhibits sleep onset and reduces sleep quality. Preliminary evidence suggests that a self-administered hypnosis intervention is feasible in improving sleep within a college student population, and the current study explores potential correlating variables to inform future mechanistic research. Twenty-two college students who self-reported poor sleep quality utilized a three-week self-administered hypnosis intervention while completing baseline and endpoint measures of sleep quality, insomnia symptoms, and psychological factors. Results indicated that participants experienced significant improvement with large effects in sleep quality ( d  = -1.21) and significant decreases in insomnia symptoms ( d  = 1.05) from pre- to post-intervention. Significant improvements were also observed on measures of pre-sleep arousal and worry. The results suggest that a self-administered hypnosis intervention may modulate pre-sleep cognitive activity associated with poor sleep quality.