De laatste 40 jaar is er veel wetenschappelijk onderzoek gedaan naar de medische waarde van hypnose, en veel oude en bizarre opvattingen zijn daardoor uit de tuin van de hypnose gewied. Over blijft een indrukwekkende hoeveelheid studies, waaruit de waarde van hypnose blijkt. Veel daarvan zijn inmiddels gepubliceerd in vooraanstaande medische tijdschriften.

Only in the past 40 years have scientists been equipped with instruments and methods for discerning the facts of hypnosis from exaggerated claims. But the study of hypnotic phenomena is now squarely in the domain of normal cognitive science, with papers on hypnosis published in some of the most selective scientific and medical journals. Of course, spectacles such as "stage hypnosis" for entertainment purposes have not disappeared. But the new findings reveal how, when used properly, the power of hypnotic suggestion can alter cognitive processes as diverse as memory and pain perception. 

Het onderzoek naar de ' hypnotizeerbaarheid' van mensen startte met het onderzoek van de Universiteit van Stanford door de psychologen Andre M. Weitzenhoffer en Ernest R. Hilgard, in de VS. Zij ontwierpen een schaal waarmee je kan meten hoe hypnotizeerbaar iemand is. Door die schaal toe te passen op een groot aantal mensen, bleek dat personen gehypnotiseerd kunnen worden, of juist niet, zonder dat de eigenschappen van de hypnotiseur er toe doen:

A person's responsiveness to hypnosis also remains fairly consistent regardless of the characteristics of the hypnotist: the practitioner's gender, age and experience have little or no effect on a subject's ability to be hypnotized. Similarly, the success of hypnosis does not depend on whether a subject is highly motivated or especially willing. A very responsive subject will become hypnotized under a variety of experimental conditions and therapeutic settings, whereas a less susceptible person will not, despite his or her sincere efforts. (Negative attitudes and expectations can, however, interfere with hypnosis.) 

De skepsis over wat hypnose is, is door modern beeldvormend onderzoek bij velen weggenomen. Hypnose is een via hersenscanning (PET) meetbaar fenomeen, en heeft niets te maken met een grote fantasie!

As scientists discover more about hypnosis, they are also uncovering evidence that counters some of the skepticism about the technique. One such objection is that hypnosis is simply a matter of having an especially vivid imagination. In fact, this does not seem to be the case. Many imaginative people are not good hypnotic subjects, and no relation between the two abilities has surfaced. 

Het was boeiend te zien dat er in de hersenen tijdens hypnose hetzelfde gebeurd als tijdens de waarneming van echte fenomenen. Zowel de waarneming van geluid dat ingebeeld werd tijdens de hypnose als het werkelijke geluid deed in de hersenen hetzelfde patroon ontstaan. Die patronen waren duidelijk anders, als de proefpersoon zich de geluiden alleen voorstelde, zonder dat hij onder hypnose was!

In 1998 Henry Szechtman of McMaster University in Ontario and his co-workers used PET to image the brain activity of hypnotized subjects who were invited to imagine a scenario and who then experienced a hallucination. The researchers noted that an auditory hallucination and the act of imagining a sound are both self-generated and that, like real hearing, a hallucination is experienced as coming from an external source. By monitoring regional blood flow in areas activated during both hearing and auditory hallucination but not during simple imagining, the investigators sought to determine where in the brain a hallucinated sound is mistakenly "tagged" as authentic and originating in the outside world. 

Waarde voor de geneeskunde

De auteur sloot zijn stuk af met een vooruitblik over de waarde van hypnose voor de geneeskunde:^[1]

So what are the medical benefits of hypnosis?

A 1996 National Institutes of Health technology assessment panel judged hypnosis to be an effective intervention for alleviating pain from cancer and other chronic conditions. Voluminous clinical studies also indicate that hypnosis can reduce the acute pain experienced by patients undergoing burn-wound debridement, children enduring bone marrow aspirations and women in labor.

A meta-analysis published in a recent special issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, for example, found that hypnotic suggestions relieved the pain of 75 percent of 933 subjects participating in 27 different experiments. The pain-relieving effect of hypnosis is often substantial, and in a few cases the degree of relief matches or exceeds that provided by morphine.

Hypnosis can boost the effectiveness of psychotherapy for some conditions.

Another meta-analysis that examined the outcomes of people in 18 separate studies found that patients who received cognitive behavioral therapy plus hypnosis for disorders such as obesity, insomnia, anxiety and hypertension showed greater improvement than 70 percent of the patients who received psychotherapy alone.

After publication of these findings, a task force of the American Psychological Association validated hypnosis as an adjunct procedure for the treatment of obesity. But the jury is still out on other disorders with a behavioral component.

Drug addiction and alcoholism do not respond well to hypnosis, and the evidence for hypnosis as an aid in quitting smoking is equivocal.

That said, there is strong, but not yet definitive, evidence that hypnosis can be an effective component in the broader treatment of other conditions. Listed in rough order of tractability by hypnosis, these include a subgroup of asthmas; some dermatological disorders, including warts; irritable bowel syndrome; hemophilia; and nausea associated with chemotherapy.

Maar wel artsen erbij!

De volgende opmerking nemen we ook in zijn totaliteit over, omdat het van belang is dat artsen betrokken blijven bij de behandeling, en dat hypnotherapie niet in totale isolatie van andere medische behandelingen gegeven moet worden. Een medische diagnose is wel noodzakelijk! 

But the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis says that hypnosis cannot, and should not, stand alone as the sole medical or psychological intervention for any disorder. The reason is that anyone who can read a script with some degree of expression can learn how to hypnotize someone. An individual with a medical or psychological problem should first consult a qualified health care provider for a diagnosis. Such a practitioner is in the best position to decide with the patient whether hypnosis is indicated and, if it is, how it might be incorporated into the individual's treatment.

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