Hypnosis can Reduce the Anesthetic Requirements During Cancer Surgery

In 2004 Dr. Christina Liossi, studied eighty children in four groups of twenty in Wales.  Two of the groups were treated by hypnosis and anesthetic before undergoing surgical cancer procedures, and two control groups had anesthetic alone. All of the eighty children were aged between six and sixteen. Forty children who were treated by hypnosis were hypnotized by psychologists and were taught to self hypnotize themselves.

The children were all asked to rate their pain on a naught to five basis before they were subjected to any treatment, then they were asked to rate it again afterward.

Dr Gruzelier of Imperial College in London explained that when people are hypnotized there is a change in the cingulated gyrus, which is located in the left frontal cortex of the brain and this change is discernible during a MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner. The frontal lobe of the brain is concerned with planning and analysis. The cancer patients who had undergone hypnosis underwent had fewer symptoms of nausea, vomiting and pain, and all of these are associated as side effects of cancer treatment.

Breast cancer surgery patients have these side effects fairly often because of the invasive nature of the surgery. Dr Guy Montgomery recruited two hundred breast cancer sufferers to undergo either hypnosis or a consultation with a psychologist before surgery. The women who were hypnotized were also taught how to induce a hypnotic trance themselves. As a result of this, they required less anesthetic but crucially reported less post operative emotional distress, pain fatigue and nausea. Dr David Spiegel, from Stanford University School of Medicine, postulated that the treatment worked by altering the patients perceptions of pain by directing the attention of the mind elsewhere.

“The key concept is that this psychological procedure actually changes pain experience as much as many analgesic medications and far more than placebos.”

More research needs to be carried out before this is likely to be introduced into mainstream cancer treatments. Dr Christina Liossi thinks that hypnosis can prolong the life expectancy of cancer sufferers. However more clinical trials will be necessary to support this. Over the past thirty years, there have been a small number of observational studies and quasi experimental studies which have suggested that psychological factors may influence the outcome of the disease. However there have been no clinical trials that support the idea that any psychosocial interventions have prolonged the time of survival or affected the time of survival.

Some clinicians will be open to the suggestion of hypnosis if only because it reduces the cost to the hospitals as less anesthetic means less money spent on drugs, so if you are facing surgery it may be worth your while speaking to your doctor.