International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis

Hypnotherapy has been gaining recognition as an alternative treatment for excess weight problems. This qualitative study aims to explore individuals' experiences of losing weight through hypnotherapy and their perceived barriers and facilitators for healthy lifestyle changes. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 participants (11 women and 4 men; mean age of 23 years) who recorded having lost ≥5% weight after undergoing 3 hypnotherapy sessions previously at a public university in Terengganu, Malaysia...

The present scoping review reports the reciprocal relations between hypnotizability, interoception, and emotion. Brain morpho-functional differences may account for the lower interoceptive accuracy, higher interoceptive sensitivity, and different emotional strategies observed in highly hypnotizable participants with respect to medium-to-low hypnotizables. Since interoception is relevant to both physical and mental health and hypnotizability can predict both interoceptive abilities and the efficacy of interoception-based mental training, this allows for the development of new forms of treatment and rehabilitation...

This blinded study evaluated the relative efficacy of three hypnosis sessions in 60 patients with chronic nociplastic pain allocated randomly to one of two conditions: hypnosis with analgesic suggestions, or hypnosis with nonspecific suggestions. Pain intensity, pain quality, and pain interference as outcome measures were assessed before and after treatment. A mixed-design analysis of the variance model showed no significant differences between groups. According to the adjusted model, large effect size improvements in pain intensity and pain quality emerged for both conditions but were only meaningful for patients not taking pain medications...

An online survey of 691 clinicians who use hypnosis was conducted in 31 countries to gain a broad real-world picture of current practices, views, and experiences in clinical hypnosis. Among 36 common clinical uses, stress reduction, wellbeing and self-esteem-enhancement, surgery preparations, anxiety interventions, mindfulness facilitation, and labor and childbirth applications were the most frequently rated as highly effective (each by ≥70% of raters) in the clinicians' own experience. Adverse hypnosis-associated effects had been encountered by 55% of clinicians but were generally short-lived and very rarely judged as serious...

A recent international survey discovered that clinicians who use hypnosis in their practice rarely assess the hypnotizability of their patients or clients. This contrasts sharply with the practice in laboratory research. One reason offered for this discrepancy is that hypnotizability does not strongly predict clinical outcome. But a comparison of this relationship with similar correlations in other domains shows that this criticism is misleading-especially when the treatment capitalizes on the alterations in perception, memory, and voluntary control that characterize the domain of hypnosis...

This issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis addresses the efficacy and feasibility of hypnosis interventions for several medical problems and issues. The lead article provides a narrative review of the efficacy of hypnosis interventions for Fibromyalgia. This is followed by a feasibility study of self-administered hypnosis for sleep disturbances in college students and an article on self-hypnosis for self-care in oncology patients. The effect of self-hypnosis on test anxiety is added in a study of secondary school students in Malaysia...

Sleep disturbance can negatively affect physical and psychological health. Hypnotherapy may be effective for improving sleep with fewer side effects than other treatments. The purpose of this systematic review is to comprehensively identify studies and evidence regarding hypnotherapy for sleep disturbances. Four databases were searched to identify studies examining the use of hypnotherapy for sleep in adult populations. The search yielded 416 articles, of which 44 were included. Qualitative data analysis revealed that 47...

A recent survey conducted by the Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis Task Force for Efficacy Standards in Hypnosis Research found that clinicians reported using one or more of several different styles of hypnosis in their work. The most common of these was Ericksonian, used by over 2/3rds of clinicians, followed by hypnotic relaxation therapy and traditional hypnosis. Surprisingly, a little less than a 3rd of respondents indicated using the evidence-based practice of hypnotherapy. The present paper discusses these findings from the perspective of optimal survey methodology, examines areas of differences and overlap among response options, and considers the question of the evidence base for the practice of clinical hypnosis...

Findings from the Task Force for Efficacy Standards in Hypnosis Research hypnosis clinician survey provide new insight into current practice trends in clinical hypnosis internationally. The clinician-focused survey highlighted several interesting imbalances between hypnosis research evidence and its practice applications. Inconsistencies arose in clinician experiences of adverse events in treatment, reported conditions treated using hypnosis, and for what conditions hypnosis is considered most effective. This commentary aims to better elucidate the differences noted and offers recommendations for training and teaching hypnosis...

Remote hypnotherapy is a treatment that is increasingly being utilized internationally. Its adoption has been accelerated following the COVID-19 pandemic when infection control measures mandated its implementation. Remote hypnotherapy via video, rather than telephone therapy, appears to be more popular and effective, which appears to be acceptable to patients and - compared to face-to-face therapy - has the potential to improve access. In this state-of-the-art article, the authors therefore review the latest literature in this exciting field of remote teletherapy, discussing adoption of video hypnotherapy; its evidence, including efficacy compared to face-to-face therapy; patient satisfaction; advantages and disadvantages of teletherapy; as well as practical considerations and factors that should be considered when deciding on the mode of delivery...

This issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis provides a landmark international survey of clinicians across 31 countries regarding current practices and views of clinical hypnosis. Thirty-six common uses of hypnosis were identified including stress reduction, wellbeing, and other applications. The most common approaches to hypnotherapy were Ericksonian, Hypnotic Relaxation Therapy, and Traditional Hypnosis. Commentaries are provided by leading experts in the field of clinical and experimental hypnosis...

The effectiveness of the novel intervention mindful hypnotherapy on depression, self-compassion, and psychological inflexibility in females with major depressive disorder was examined in a randomized, clinical trial. Thirty-four participants were randomly allocated into mindful hypnotherapy and waitlist control groups. The intervention group was treated in 8 face-to-face, 60-minute weekly therapy sessions along with mindful hypnosis audio tapes to be used daily. The results of analysis of covariance indicated that there were significant differences between the mindful hypnotherapy and waitlist control groups after intervention and at 2-month follow-up ( p < ...

Rumination is a clinical phenomenon that causes significant distress in clients who suffer from various psychological and physical disorders. It also has a deleterious impact on both therapeutic process and outcome. One approach that holds promise to manage rumination is mindfulness meditation in combination with clinical hypnosis. This article: (1) reviews the concept of and techniques to manage rumination in the Buddhist psychological framework, (2) introduces 2 simple mindfulness-based techniques to deal with rumination, i...

The insertion of a nasogastric (NG) tube is often a difficult experience for both patients and caregivers. This often results in a high failure rate of NG insertion. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness, tolerance, and acceptability of hypnoanalgesia to assist self-insertion of an NG tube. Patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy for autologous or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or acute leukemia and with high risk of aplasia were included in the study. A total of 38 patients were included during 6 consecutive months...

This systematic review aims to identify current protocols involving the use of hypnosis during the perinatal period and to examine its effects on mothers' well-being. Seven electronic databases were searched for articles published from 1960 to April 1, 2021, that assessed the effectiveness of hypnosis during the perinatal period. All published randomized, controlled trials and nonrandomized, controlled trials studies assessing the effectiveness of hypnosis used during the perinatal period with healthy adult women were included...

Previous research has shown promising results in using hypnosis to treat various symptoms and side effects of medical treatments. The objective was to identify studies that use hypnosis as an adjuvant to evidence-based treatments to evaluate its benefits in patients with cancer. The search identified 873 articles published between 2000 and February 2021, of which 22 were selected using the principles of the PRISMA. Apart from 1 study, all studies showed that interventions improved the measured variables compared to a control group...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

This article presents French norms for the online version of the Sussex-Waterloo Scale of Hypnotizability. This scale is an online adaptation of the well-established Waterloo-Stanford Group C Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: with both behavioral and subjective scores. Insofar as hypnotizability (the ability to respond to suggestions in a hypnotic context) varies substantially in the general population and remains generally stable throughout life, it is important to measure it in experiments using hypnotic suggestion...

Until now, there has been an acute shortage of valid and reliable tools in Russia for making an accurate and highly differentiable assessment of hypnotizability. However, numerous studies confirm the high efficiency, reliability, and accuracy of the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale (EHS), allowing it to claim the title of the new gold standard for assessing hypnotizability. In the present study, the original English-language version of the EHS was translated into Russian. One hundred and five volunteers from Moscow (42% male; 58% female), aged 19 to 44, underwent a hypnotizability assessment procedure according to the EHS protocol...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.