Pain Research and Hypnosis

I found this abstract from a research paper on pain and hypnosis and thought it may be of interest to people who are in pain and finding it difficult to find ways to manage it.

Research around the clinical utility of hypnosis for controlling pain was undertaken by Patterson, David R.; Everett, John J.; Burns, G. Leonard; Marvin, Janet A in 1992.  They studied the levels of pain of patients being treated with burn wounds.   30 hospitalized burn patients and their nurses submitted visual analog scales (VASs) for pain during 2 consecutive daily wound debridements. On the 1st day, patients and nurses submitted baseline VAS ratings. Before the next day's wound debridement, the patients received hypnosis, attention and information, or no treatment. Only hypnotized patients reported significant pain reductions relative to pretreatment baseline. This result was corroborated by nurse VAS ratings. Findings indicate that hypnosis is a viable adjunct treatment for burn pain.

Hypnosis for the treatment of burn pain.

Patterson, David R.; Everett, John J.; Burns, G. Leonard; Marvin, Janet A.

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 60(5), Oct 1992, 713-717.