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La hipnosis como tratamiento, recopilación de la evidencia clínica: una revisión sistemática
... En este estado, la mente consciente puede estar más relajada, permitiendo que la mente subconsciente se vuelva más accesible. Esto puede facilitar la exploración de recuerdos, pensamientos o emociones que podrían no ser fácilmente accesibles en un estado de vigilia normal.La resonancia magnética funcional ha demostrado cambios en la conectividad funcional entre diversas regiones cerebrales, incluyendo aquellas asociadas con la atención y la consciencia (Johan-Dojaquez, López-García, & Zenteno-Covarrubias, 2024). Además, algunos estudios sugieren que la hipnosis puede modular la actividad en el sistema límbico, que está implicado en las emociones y la memoria (PedroManuel & María, 2012).Durante la hipnosis, la persona es más receptiva a las sugerencias del hipnotizador, y con ello pueden generarse cambios en el pensamiento, la percepción y el comportamiento. ...
“Estudio de la Mente y la Acción, desde la Perspectiva de la Filosofía de la Forma" es una obra que realiza una investigación exhaustiva y profunda tanto filosófica como científica.
El autor aborda temas importantes como la teoría del conocimiento y la teoría de la mente, además de los aspectos relacionados con la acción humana.
La exploración comienza con un análisis filosófico de los aspectos fundamentales de la forma, examinando sus implicaciones en el ámbito del conocimiento y la ciencia. Este enfoque filosófico sirve como base para adentrarse en los complejos procesos de la mente y de la consciencia. La obra se distingue por combinar esta perspectiva filosófica con los últimos avances y conocimientos en neurobiología, proporcionando así una comprensión integral de los temas tratados.
A lo largo del libro, el autor presenta una visión cohesiva que conecta los principios filosóficos de la forma con los descubrimientos científicos actuales. Esta integración ofrece una nueva luz sobre cómo entendemos la mente y la acción humana. Además, se exploran las diversas implicaciones de estos procesos en las múltiples facetas del actuar humano, desde la toma de decisiones hasta la percepción y la interacción con el entorno.
La obra destaca por su enfoque interdisciplinario, que no solo enriquecerá a filósofos y científicos, sino también a cualquier lector interesado en una comprensión más profunda de la mente y el comportamiento humano. Este libro es una valiosa contribución que proporciona herramientas conceptuales y prácticas para abordar preguntas fundamentales sobre la naturaleza del conocimiento, la mente y la acción desde una perspectiva innovadora y comprensiva.
Hypnosis can be conceived as a unique opportunity to explore how top-down effects can influence various conscious and non-conscious processes. In the field of perception, such modulatory effects have been described in distinct sensory modalities. In the present study we focused on the auditory channel and aimed at creating a radical deafness to elementary sounds by a specific hypnotic suggestion. We report here a single case-study in a highly suggestible healthy volunteer who reported a total hypnotically suggested deafness. We recorded high-density scalp EEG during an auditory odd-ball paradigm before and after hypnotic deafness suggestion. While both early auditory event-related potentials to sounds (P1) and mismatch negativity component were not affected by hypnotic deafness, we observed a total disappearance of the late P3 complex component when the subject reported being deaf. Moreover, a centro-mesial positivity was present exclusively during the hypnotic condition prior to the P3 complex. Interestingly, source localization suggested an anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) origin of this neural event. Multivariate decoding analyses confirmed and specified these findings. Resting state analyses confirmed a similar level of conscious state in both conditions, and suggested a functional disconnection between auditory areas and other cortical areas. Taken together these results suggest the following plausible scenario: (i) preserved early processing of auditory information unaffected by hypnotic suggestion, (ii) conscious setting of an inhibitory process (ACC) preventing conscious access to sounds, (iii) functional disconnection between the modular and unconscious representations of sounds and global neuronal workspace. This single subject study presents several limits that are discussed and remains open to alternative interpretations. This original proof-of-concept paves the way to a larger study that will test the predictions stemming from our theoretical model and from this first report.
Hypnotherapy (HT) is a promising approach to treating depression, but so far, no data are available on the neuronal mechanisms of functional reorganization after HT for depressed patients. Here, 75 patients with mild to moderate depression, who received either HT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), were measured before and after therapy using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. We investigated the patients’ cerebral activation during an emotional human gait paradigm. Further, rumination was included as predictor. Our results showed a decrease of functional connectivity (FC) between two regions that are crucial to emotional processing, the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) and the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS). This FC decrease was traced back to an activation change throughout therapy in the right STS, not the EBA and was only found in the HT group, depending on rumination: less ruminating HT patients showed a decrease in right STS activation, while highly ruminating patients showed an increase. We carefully propose that this activation change is due to the promotion of emotional experiences during HT, while in CBT a focus lay on activating behavior and changing negative cognitions. HT seemed to have had differential effects on the patients, depending on their rumination style: The increase of right STS activation in highly ruminating patients might mirror the improvement of impaired emotional processing, whilst the decrease of activation in low ruminating patients might reflect a dismissal of an over-compensation, associated with a hyperactivity before therapy. We conclude that HT affects emotional processing and this effect is moderated by rumination.
Chronic pain is a complex phenomenon which includes biological, psychological, and socio-professional factors that undermine patients’ everyday life. Currently, only few patients significantly benefit from pharmacological treatments and many have to stop them because of negative side effects. Moreover, no medication or treatment addresses all aspects of chronic pain at once (i.e., sensations, emotions, behaviors, and cognitions), positioning chronic pain as an important public health issue and thus contributing to high health-care costs. Consequently, patients and health-care providers are increasingly turning to complementary non-pharmacological techniques such as hypnosis. Clinical research has demonstrated a decrease of pain perception, pain interference, depression and anxiety, and an increase in global quality of life when patients with chronic pain have benefited from hypnosis learning. Neuroimaging studies offer a possible explanation of these results by focusing on neural processes of pain modulation in chronic pain patients’ brain. Studies conducted with chronic pain patients showed a modulation of pain matrix activity during hypnosis with a specific involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (related to emotional and cognitive processing of pain). Therefore, hypnosis seems to act upon regions underlying emotion and cognition, with an influence on pain perception and emotional regulation. In this review, we propose to carry out a review of the recent literature on hypnosis in chronic pain management. A better understanding of the beneficial effects of hypnosis on chronic pain and its neurophysiology should enable more systematic use of this technique in the management of this complex health problem.
Several theories of hypnosis assume that responses to hypnotic suggestions are implemented through top-down modulations via a frontoparietal network that is involved in monitoring and cognitive control. The current study addressed this issue re-analyzing previously published event-related-potentials (ERP) (N1, P2, and P3b amplitudes) and combined it with source reconstruction and connectivity analysis methods. ERP data were obtained from participants engaged in a visual oddball paradigm composed of target, standard, and distractor stimuli during a hypnosis (HYP) and a control (CON) condition. In both conditions, participants were asked to count the rare targets presented on a video screen. During HYP participants received suggestions that a wooden board in front of their eyes would obstruct their view of the screen. The results showed that participants’ counting accuracy was significantly impaired during HYP compared to CON. ERP components in the N1 and P2 window revealed no amplitude differences between CON and HYP at sensor-level. In contrast, P3b amplitudes in response to target stimuli were significantly reduced during HYP compared to CON. Source analysis of the P3b amplitudes in response to targets indicated that HYP was associated with reduced source activities in occipital and parietal brain areas related to stimulus categorization and attention. We further explored how these brain sources interacted by computing time-frequency effective connectivity between electrodes that best represented frontal, parietal, and occipital sources. This analysis revealed reduced directed information flow from parietal attentional to frontal executive sources during processing of target stimuli. These results provide preliminary evidence that hypnotic suggestions of a visual blockade are associated with a disruption of the coupling within the frontoparietal network implicated in top-down control.
Hypnotic suggestions can produce a broad range of perceptual experiences, including hallucinations. Visual hypnotic hallucinations differ in many ways from regular mental images. For example, they are usually experienced as automatic, vivid, and real images, typically compromising the sense of reality. While both hypnotic hallucination and mental imagery are believed to mainly rely on the activation of the visual cortex via top-down mechanisms, it is unknown how they differ in the neural processes they engage. Here we used an adaptation paradigm to test and compare top-down processing between hypnotic hallucination, mental imagery, and visual perception in very highly hypnotisable individuals whose ability to hallucinate was assessed. By measuring the N170/VPP event-related complex and using multivariate decoding analysis, we found that hypnotic hallucination of faces involves greater top-down activation of sensory processing through lateralised neural mechanisms in the right hemisphere compared to mental imagery. Our findings suggest that the neural signatures that distinguish hypnotically hallucinated faces from imagined faces lie in the right brain hemisphere.
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, published in 2009, was designed to help systematic reviewers transparently report why the review was done, what the authors did, and what they found. Over the past decade, advances in systematic review methodology and terminology have necessitated an update to the guideline. The PRISMA 2020 statement replaces the 2009 statement and includes new reporting guidance that reflects advances in methods to identify, select, appraise, and synthesise studies. The structure and presentation of the items have been modified to facilitate implementation. In this article, we present the PRISMA 2020 27-item checklist, an expanded checklist that details reporting recommendations for each item, the PRISMA 2020 abstract checklist, and the revised flow diagrams for original and updated reviews.
In recent years, evidence linked hypnotizability to the executive control and information salience networks, brain structures that play a role in cognitive conflict resolution and perseveration (insisting on applying a previously learned logical rule on a new set). Despite the growing body of neuroimaging evidence, the cognitive phenotype of hypnotizability is not well understood. We hypothesized that higher hypnotizability would correspond to lower perseveration and set-shifting. Seventy-two healthy adults were tested for hypnotizability and executive functions (perseveration and set-shifting). Multiple regression analyses were performed to test the relationship between hypnotizability and perseveration and set-shifting. Higher hypnotizability was associated with lower perseveration after accounting for age and education. Hypnotizability significantly predicted perseveration but not set-shifting. Our results indicate an inverse relationship between trait hypnotizability and perseveration, an executive function that utilizes regions of both the executive control and the salience systems. This suggests that hypnotizability may share a common cognitive mechanism with error evaluation and implementation of logical rules.
Can the brain be shifted into a different state using a simple social cue, as tests on highly hypnotizable subjects would sug-gest? Demonstrating an altered global brain state is difficult. Brain activation varies greatly during wakefulness and can be voluntarily influenced. We measured the complexity of electrophysiological response to transcranial magnetic stimulation in one 'hypnotic virtuoso'. Such a measure produces a response arguably outside the subject's voluntary control and has been proven adequate for discriminating conscious from unconscious brain states. We show that a single-word hypnotic induction robustly shifted global neural connectivity into a state where activity remained sustained but failed to ignite strong, coherent activity in frontoparietal cortices. Changes in perturbational complexity indicate a similar move towards a more segregated state. We interpret these findings to suggest a shift in the underlying state of the brain, likely moderating subsequent hypnotic responding.
Higher arousal and cortical excitability have been observed in high hypnotizable individuals (highs) with respect to low hypnotizables (lows), which may be due to differences in the activation of ascending activating systems. The present study investigated the possible hypnotizability-related difference in the cortical noradrenergic tone sustained by the activity of the Locus Coeruleus which is strongly related to pupil size. This was measured during relaxation in three groups of participants—highs (N = 15), lows (N = 15) and medium hypnotizable individuals (mediums, N = 11)—in the time and frequency domains and through the Recurrence Quantification Analysis. ECG and Skin Conductace (SC) were monitored to extract autonomic indices of relaxation (heart interbeats intervals, parasympathetic component of heart rate variability (RMSSD) and tonic SC (MeanTonicSC). Most variables indicated that participants relaxed throughout the session. Pupil features did not show significant differences between highs, mediums and lows, except for the spectral Band Median Frequency which was higher in mediums than in lows and highs at the beginning, but not at the end of the session.Thus, the present findings of pupil size cannot account for the differences in arousal and motor cortex excitability observed between highs and lows in resting conditions.
Waiting for delayed rewards is important to reach long-term goals, yet most people prefer immediate rewards. This tendency is called delay discounting. Evidence shows that people are more willing to wait for delayed rewards when they believe that the delayed reward is certain. We hypothesized that feeling safe makes delayed outcomes subjectively more certain, which should in turn reduce neuronal signals of delay discounting. We hypnotized 24 highly suggestible participants and gave them a suggestion to feel safe. We then used EEG to measure their brain responses to immediate and delayed rewards while they played a delayed gratification game. As compared to a control condition without hypnosis, participants that were suggested to feel safe under hypnosis reported feeling significantly safer. Further, their reward-related brain activity differentiated less between immediate and delayed rewards. We conclude that feeling safe makes delayed outcomes subjectively more certain and therefore reduces neuronal signals of delay discounting.
Hypnosis is a powerful tool to affect the processing and perception of stimuli. Here, we investigated the effects of hypnosis on the processing of auditory stimuli, the time course of event-related-potentials (ERP; N1 and P3b amplitudes) and the activity of cortical sources of the P3b component. Forty-eight participants completed an auditory oddball paradigm composed of standard, distractor, and target stimuli during a hypnosis (HYP), a simulation of hypnosis (SIM), a distraction (DIS), and a control (CON) condition. During HYP, participants were suggested that an earplug would obstruct the perception of tones and during SIM they should pretend being hypnotized and obstructed to hear the tones. During DIS, participants’ attention was withdrawn from the tones by focusing participants’ attention onto a film. In each condition, subjects were asked to press a key whenever a target stimulus was presented. Behavioral data show that target hit rates and response time became significantly reduced during HYP and SIM and loudness ratings of tones were only reduced during HYP. Distraction from stimuli by the film was less effective in reducing target hit rate and tone loudness. Although, the N1 amplitude was not affected by the experimental conditions, the P3b amplitude was significantly reduced in HYP and SIM compared to CON and DIS. In addition, source localization results indicate that only a small number of neural sources organize the differences of tone processing between the control condition and the distraction, hypnosis, and simulation of hypnosis conditions. These sources belong to brain areas that control the focus of attention, the discrimination of auditory stimuli, and the organization of behavioral responses to targets. Our data confirm that deafness suggestions significantly change auditory processing and perception but complete deafness is hard to achieve during HYP. Therefore, the term ‘deafness’ may be misleading and should better be replaced by ‘hypoacusis’.
Hypnosis can be considered an altered state of consciousness in which individuals produce movements under suggestion without apparent voluntary control. Despite its application in contexts implying motor control, evidence for the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying hypnosis is scarce. Inter-individual differences in hypnotic susceptibility suggest that sensorimotor strategies may manifest in a hypnotic state. We tested by means of transcranial magnetic stimulation applied over the primary motor cortex whether motor system activation during a motor imagery task differs in the awake and in the hypnotic state. To capture individual differences, 30 healthy volunteers were classified as high or low hypnotizable (Highs and Lows) according to ad-hoc validated scales measuring hypnotic susceptibility and personality questionnaires. Corticospinal activation during motor imagery in the hypnotic state was greater in the Highs than the Lows. Intrinsic motivation in task performance and level of persuasion modulated corticospinal activation in the Highs. Corticospinal system activation under hypnosis may have practical implications that merit research in areas where hypnosis can be applied to improve motor performance, such as loss of motor abilities and sports.
Slow‐wave sleep is one of the most important restorative components of sleep and central for our health and cognitive functioning. Although the amount of slow‐wave sleep depends on sleep drive, age and other factors, also the pre‐sleep mental state might influence sleep depth. We had shown that a pre‐sleep hypnotic suggestion to sleep more deeply increased slow‐wave sleep duration in hypnotizable subjects. In contrast, low‐hypnotizable participants decreased sleep depth after this intervention. A possible reason might be an aversion to and active resistance against hypnosis. To overcome this potential opposition, we introduced the procedure as ‘guided imagery’. We replaced the hypnotic induction by a breathing relaxation. Importantly, the suggestion ‘to sleep more deeply’ remained identical. We expected that these changes would make it easier for low‐hypnotizable subjects to benefit from the suggestion. In contrast, young healthy low‐hypnotizable participants did not show positive effects. Similar to our previous studies, they exhibited a reduced slow‐wave sleep duration after the intervention. Additionally, the ratio between slow‐wave activity and beta band power decreased. Subjective sleep quality remained unaffected. Our results indicate that suggestions to sleep more deeply result in decreased sleep depth in low‐hypnotizable participants regardless of the mental technique (guided imagery versus hypnosis). Thus, the aversion against hypnosis per se cannot explain the detrimental effect of the intervention on slow‐wave sleep in low‐hypnotizable subjects. The results support the notion that our mental state before sleep can influence subsequent slow‐wave sleep. However, the mechanisms of the contradictory decrease in low‐hypnotizable subjects remain unknown.
The use of hypnosis can generate hallucinatory phenomena, which ranged from vivid/auditory imagery to fully developed “hallucinations” in selected people. The aim of this pilot trial was investigating the acute effects of a hypnosis-induced hallucinated breakfast (HB) compared to those of a real breakfast (RB) on subjective appetite and appetite-regulating hormones in highly hypnotizable individuals. Eight healthy post-menopausal women were recruited to consume two meals: the HB and the RB in a randomized crossover design. Participants underwent appetite sensations measurements (before meal and each 30-min until 270-min) and blood sample collection (at 0, 20, 60, 90, 180-min). A 3-day food-record was filled after each meal. The adjusted repeated measures ANCOVA did not show any meal×time interactions on subjective appetite postprandially. As expected, significantly higher glucose (p < 0.001), insulin (p < 0.001), and lower free fatty acid (p < 0.001) concentrations were found after the RB, but not following HB. Furthermore, RB significantly increased postprandial levels of glucagon-like-peptide-1 and peptide-YY at 20, 60, 90 and 180-min, whereas acylated-ghrelin and leptin levels did not differ. Postprandial neuropeptide-Y and orexin-A values significantly increased at different time-points after RB, but not following HB, while α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone levels enhanced after HB only. Energy intakes were significantly lower after HB on the test-day only (HB = 1146.6 ± 343.8 vs RB = 1634.7 ± 274.2 kcal/d; p = 0.003). Appetite sensation might be modulated by fully developed meal “hallucination” induced by hypnosis, likely affecting brain-peptides implicated in the appetite regulation. However, further studies are needed to verify these results obtained in a highly selected group of individuals. NCT03934580.
Background
Cortisol has been used to capture psychophysiological stress during childbirth and postpartum wellbeing. We explored the effect of a brief antenatal training course in self-hypnosis on salivary cortisol during childbirth and 6 weeks postpartum.
Methods
In a randomized, controlled trial conducted at Aarhus University Hospital Skejby Denmark during the period January 2010 until October 2010, a total of 349 healthy nulliparous women were included. They were randomly allocated to a hypnosis group (n = 136) receiving three one-hour lessons in self-hypnosis with additional audio-recordings, a relaxation group (n = 134) receiving three one-hour lessons in various relaxation methods with audio-recordings for additional training, and a usual care group (n = 79) receiving ordinary antenatal care only. Salivary cortisol samples were collected during childbirth (at the beginning of the pushing state, 30 minutes, and 2 hours after childbirth), and 6 weeks postpartum (at wake up, 30 minutes after wake up, and evening). Cortisol concentrations were compared using a linear mixed-effects model. Correlations between cortisol concentrations and length of birth, experienced pain and calmness during birth were examined by a Spearman rank correlation test.
Findings
During childbirth, week correlations were found between cortisol concentrations 30 minutes after childbirth and length of birth. In the beginning of the pushing state and 2 hours after childbirth, we found a tendency towards higher cortisol concentrations in the hypnosis group compared to the other two groups (hypnosis versus relaxation p = 0.02 and 0.03, hypnosis versus usual care p = 0.08 and 0.05). No differences were observed in cortisol concentrations between the groups 30 minutes after childbirth (hypnosis versus relaxation p = 0.08, hypnosis versus usual care 0.10) or 6 weeks postpartum (hypnosis versus relaxation: p = 0.85, 0.51, and 0.68, hypnosis versus usual care: p = 0.85, 0.93, and 0.96).
Conclusion
Antenatal hypnosis training may increase the release of cortisol during childbirth with no long-term consequences. Further research is needed to help interpret these findings.
Variation of information in the firing rate of neural population, as reflected in different frequency bands of electroencephalographic (EEG) time series, provides direct evidence for change in neural responses of the brain to hypnotic suggestibility. However, realization of an effective biomarker for spiking behaviour of neural population proves to be an elusive subject matter with its impact evident in highly contrasting results in the literature. In this article, we took an information-theoretic stance on analysis of the EEG time series of the brain activity during hypnotic suggestions, thereby capturing the variability in pattern of brain neural activity in terms of its information content. For this purpose, we utilized differential entropy (DE, i.e., the average information content in a continuous time series) of theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands of fourteen-channel EEG time series recordings that pertain to the brain neural responses of twelve carefully selected high and low hypnotically suggestible individuals. Our results show that the higher hypnotic suggestibility is associated with a significantly lower variability in information content of theta, alpha, and beta frequencies. Moreover, they indicate that such a lower variability is accompanied by a significantly higher functional connectivity (FC, a measure of spatiotemporal synchronization) in the parietal and the parieto-occipital regions in the case of theta and alpha frequency bands and a non-significantly lower FC in the central region’s beta frequency band. Our results contribute to the field in two ways. First, they identify the applicability of DE as a unifying measure to reproduce the similar observations that are separately reported through adaptation of different hypnotic biomarkers in the literature. Second, they extend these previous findings that were based on neutral hypnosis (i.e., a hypnotic procedure that involves no specific suggestions other than those for becoming hypnotized) to the case of hypnotic suggestions, thereby identifying their presence as a potential signature of hypnotic experience.
Body ownership can be experimentally investigated with the rubber hand illusion (RHI), in which watching a rubber hand stroked synchronously with one’s own hidden hand induces a feeling of ownership over the rubber hand. The aim of this study was to investigate response to the RHI in high (N = 21) and low (N = 19) hypnotizable individuals in normal waking state and in hypnosis. Response to the RHI was measured via a question on the illusory feeling of ownership and with proprioceptive drift. The Highs expressed an overall feeling of more ownership over the rubber hand in both the normal waking state and hypnosis, although both groups gave higher ownership scores after synchronous than after asynchronous stroking and the difference between conditions was similar across groups. Conversely, the proprioceptive drift appeared to be differentially modulated by hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility: it was increased in the Highs and decreased in the Lows after hypnosis induction. These findings hint at an interplay between hypnotic suggestibility and hypnosis in modulating response to the RHI. The selective breakdown of proprioceptive drift among the Lows suggests resistance to recalibrate one’s own limb in hypnosis.
Introducción:
La hipnosis anestésica puede ser un recurso útil para procedimientos dolorosos.
Desarrollo:
Se reporta caso de una joven que requiere exodoncia de terceros molares, con uso de hipnosis como único anestésico. El proceso de enfermería inicia con la valoración según patrones funcionales, impresiona lo sana que se encuentra, sin antecedentes mórbidos relevantes ni contraindicación para anestesia química. Se selecciona diagnóstico NANDA de Disposición para mejorar el confort. Dentro del plan se incorporan el NIC 5920 Hipnosis y 5922 Facilitar la autohipnosis, con buena evolución según lo planificado.
Resultados:
La extracción con hipnosis anestésica se desarrolló de forma similar a la cirugía con anestesia química, la cual se realizó sin dolor. En posoperatorio, paciente practica autohipnosis, sin necesitar analgésicos y evolucionó favorablemente.
Discusión:
La hipnosis requiere mayor evidencia científica, pero su uso es prometedor. Se constataron los beneficios de la hipnosis en el abordaje del dolor.
Conclusión:
La hipnosis anestésica, fue útil como intervención de enfermería en cirugía dental. La autohipnosis contribuyó al buen resultado. El profesional de Enfermería entrenado en hipnosis está en condiciones de incorporarla en la gestión del cuidado. El caso resulta interesante, dado que la paciente opta por la hipnosis, sin contraindicación para anestesia química, ya que no se encontró otro reporte de hipnoanestesia inducida por profesional de Enfermería, como anestésico único. Anecdóticamente, durante la filmación del procedimiento, una periodista entra espontáneamente en trance, por lo que requiere intervención del profesional de Enfermería para salir de él.
Menopause is associated with problematic symptoms, including hot flashes, sleep problems, mood disorders, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and declines in cognitive functioning. Many women seek complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for symptom management. This article critically reviews the existing literature on CAM treatments most commonly used for menopausal symptoms. Electronic searches were conducted to identify relevant, English-language literature published through March 2017. Results indicate that mind and body practices may be of benefit in reducing stress and bothersomeness of some menopausal symptoms. In particular, hypnosis is a mind-body intervention that has consistently shown to have a clinically significant effect on reducing hot flashes. Evidence is mixed in regard to the efficacy of natural products and there are some safety concerns. Health care providers should consider the evidence on CAM in providing an integrative health approach to menopausal symptom management.
Hypnosis has been shown to have treatment effects on nicotine addiction. However, the neural basis of these effects is poorly understood. This preliminary study investigated the neural mechanisms of hypnosis‐based treatment on cigarette smoking, specifically, whether the hypnosis involves a top‐down or bottom‐up mechanism. Two groups of 45 smokers underwent a smoking aversion suggestion and viewed smoking‐related pictures and neutral pictures. One group underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning twice (control and hypnotic states), whereas the other group underwent two electroencephalograph sessions. Our study found that self‐reported smoking craving decreased in both groups following hypnosis. Smoking cue‐elicited activations in the right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and left insula (lI) and the functional connectivity between the rDLPFC and lI were increased in the hypnotic state compared with the control state. The delta band source waveforms indicated the activation from 390 to 862 ms at the rDLPFC and from 490 to 900 ms at the lI was significantly different between the smoking and neutral conditions in the hypnotic state, suggesting the activation in the rDLPFC preceded that in the lI. These results suggest that the decreased smoking craving via hypnotic aversion suggestions may arise from the top‐down regulation of the rDLPFC to the lI. Our findings provide novel neurobiological evidence for understanding the therapeutic effects of hypnosis on nicotine addiction, and the prefrontal–insula circuit may serve as an imaging biomarker to monitor the treatment efficacy noninvasively.
Respiratory control is essential for treatment effect of radiotherapy due to the high dose, especially for thoracic-abdomen tumor, such as lung and liver tumors. As a noninvasive and comfortable way of respiratory control, hypnosis has been proven effective as a psychological technology in clinical therapy. In this study, the neural control mechanism of hypnosis for respiration was investigated by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Altered spontaneous brain activity as well as neural correlation of respiratory motion was detected for eight healthy subjects in normal state (NS) and hypnosis state (HS) guided by a hypnotist. Reduced respiratory amplitude was observed in HS (mean ± SD: 14.23 ± 3.40 mm in NS, 12.79 ± 2.49 mm in HS, p=0.0350 ), with mean amplitude deduction of 9.2%. Interstate difference of neural activity showed activations in the visual cortex and cerebellum, while deactivations in the prefrontal cortex and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCu/PCC) in HS. Within these regions, negative correlations of neural activity and respiratory motion were observed in visual cortex in HS. Moreover, in HS, voxel-wise neural correlations of respiratory amplitude demonstrated positive correlations in cerebellum anterior lobe and insula, while negative correlations were shown in the prefrontal cortex and sensorimotor area. These findings reveal the involvement of cognitive, executive control, and sensorimotor processing in the control mechanisms of hypnosis for respiration, and shed new light on hypnosis performance in interaction of psychology, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience.
Background
Hypnosis is a psychological method used for treatment of different types of disorders and illnesses. This technique is also used in surgical interventions. Many studies proved the efficacy of hypnosis in medical treatment. However, the mechanism of hypnosis is unclear for scientists. To find out if the peripheral nervous system has a role in hypnotic anesthesia, we aimed to investigate the effect of hypnotic anesthesia on nerve conduction velocity (NCV).
Methods
In this study, healthy volunteers with high hypnotizability entered the study. First, The NCV test was performed in both hands of participants and then they all underwent hypnosis. Hypnotic anesthesia was induced in the right hand of all subjects followed by painful stimuli in their hand by vascular clasping. Then, the NCV test was repeated in both hands again. Data were analyzed by SPSS version16.
Results
The group study consisted of 13 (65%) women and 7 (35%) men with their age ranging between 14 to 52 years. According to the results, the mean values of sensory latency, and NCV changed from 3.225 ms and 54.355 m/s before hypnotic anesthesia to 3.32 ms and 55.3 m/s after hypnotic anesthesia in right hand, respectively. Results showed that there was a significant difference between data before and after hypnotic induction (P < 0.001). The covariance test also indicated a significant difference between the data obtained from both hands (P < 0.001).
Conclusions
In contrast to our hypothesis, the NCV test showed an increase after the hypnotic anesthesia. However, increase in NCV did not lead to experience pain after the painful stimuli. It seems that central nervous system should be involved in this process.
Mindfulness-based interventions and hypnosis are efficacious treatments for addressing a large number of psychological and physical conditions, including chronic pain. However, there continues to be debate surrounding the relative uniqueness of the theorized mechanisms of these treatments—reflected by measures of mindfulness facets and hypnotizability—with some concern that there may be so much overlap as to make the mechanism constructs (and, therefore, the respective interventions) redundant. Given these considerations, the primary aim of the current study was to examine the degree of unique versus shared variance between two common measures of mindfulness facets and hypnotizability: the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of (N = 154) veterans with heterogeneous chronic pain conditions. Bivariate Pearson correlations were used to examine the associations between the target scales. Results showed that the correlations between the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire scales and Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale total score were uniformly weak, although significant negative correlations were found between mindfulness facets of observe and nonreact with hypnotizability (ps < 0.05). Thus, not only are the mindfulness and hypnotizability constructs unique, but when significantly associated, hypnotic suggestibility corresponds with a tendency to be less mindful. These findings have important implications for future research aimed toward matching patients to the treatment most likely to be of benefit, and suggest that matching patients on the basis of these theoretically derived “unique” moderators may hold potential.
La hipnosis es un tema controversial y estigmatizado.
Las múltiples investigaciones de las últimas décadas
han permitido tanto derrumbar mitos, como evidenciar
sus mecanismos y aplicaciones, y cómo estos contribuyen
al bienestar de las personas. El objetivo de este
trabajo es describir las aplicaciones actuales de la hipnosis
clínica en el contexto latinoamericano. Con este
fin se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura
en las bases de datos Lilacs y SciELo, empleando los
términos “hipnosis”, “hipnosis clínica” y “Latinoamé-
rica”. Se incluyeron revisiones de la literatura, artículos
originales que tuvieran poblaciones latinoamericanas
y presentaciones de caso, publicados entre 1990 y el
2016, escritos en español. La búsqueda inicial arrojó
202 artículos; después de eliminar replicaciones y los
que no cumplían criterios de inclusión, 20 artículos
fueron incluidos en la revisión. Las aplicaciones de la
hipnosis descritas incluyen manejo del dolor, preparación
a la cirugía, tabaquismo, problemas gastrointestinales
y otras condiciones médicas, aplicaciones en
niños y adolescentes, etcétera. Desafortunadamente,
los estudios revisados tienen importantes falencias
metodológicas, lo que dificulta extraer conclusiones
sólidas. A pesar de que la hipnosis es eficaz, práctica,
costo-efectiva y aplicada en una gran variedad de problemas
clínicos, la evidencia que avala su uso en el contexto latinoamericano es muy limitada. Se requieren
investigaciones con una metodología más rigurosa
que permitan evidenciar su eficacia en este contexto.
Are synaesthetic experiences congenital and so hard-wired, or can a functional analogue be created? We induced an equivalent of form-colour synaesthesia using hypnotic suggestions in which symbols in an array (circles, crosses, squares) were suggested always to have a certain colour. In a Stroop type-naming task, three of the four highly hypnotizable participants showed a strong synaesthesia-type association between symbol and colour. This was verified both by their subjective reports and objective eye-movement behaviour. Two resembled a projector- and one an associator-type synaesthete. Participant interviews revealed that subjective experiences differed somewhat from typical (congenital) synaesthesia. Control participants who mimicked the task using cognitive strategies showed a very different response pattern. Overall, the results show that the targeted, preconsciously triggered associations and perceptual changes seen in association with congenital synaesthesia can rapidly be induced by hypnosis. They suggest that each participant's subjective experience of the task should be carefully evaluated, especially when studying hypnotic hallucinations. Studying such experiences can increase understanding of perception, automaticity, and awareness and open unique opportunities in cognitive neuroscience and consciousness research.
Background:
Hypnotic analgesia is one of the most effective nonpharmacological methods for pain control. Hypnosis and distraction of attention from pain might share similar mechanisms by which brain responses to painful stimulation could be similarly reduced in both states. There is ample evidence for the efficacy of clinical hypnosis as a psychological intervention in the treatment of acute or chronic pain. Results are conflicting, however, with some studies showing an increase, others a reduction, and others still no change in the amplitude of event-related brain potentials during hypnosis as compared to control conditions. Here we compared the effects of clinical hypnosis to simple distraction of attention during recording of laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) in patients with chronic pain.
Methods:
The dominant hand in ten patients with chronic pain was tested with LEPs during: (I) resting state; (II) clinical hypnosis, and (III) distraction of attention. Nociceptive responses elicited by LEPs were graded on a numerical rating scale (NRS), and the change in N2-P2 complex amplitude during the three experimental conditions was analyzed.
Results:
N2-P2 amplitudes were significantly decreased during the hypnotic state as compared to the resting state and distraction of attention.
Conclusions:
Hypnosis is a modified state of consciousness that may differ from mental relaxation or distraction of attention from pain. A reduction in N2-P2 amplitude may result from the modulation of diverse brain networks, particularly the frontolimbic pathways, which could modify noxious stimuli input processing during hypnotic analgesia. Our findings indicate that several different brain mechanisms may act together in hypnosis and distraction of attention during pain processing and that clinical hypnosis may provide a useful non-invasive pain relief therapy.
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) features the accumulation of β-amyloid and Tau aggregates, which deposit as extracellular plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), respectively. Neuronal Tau aggregates may appear early in life, in the absence of clinical symptoms. This occurs in the brainstem reticular formation and mostly within Locus Coeruleus (LC), which is consistently affected during AD. LC is the main source of forebrain norepinephrine (NE) and it modulates a variety of functions including sleep-waking cycle, alertness, synaptic plasticity, and memory. The iso-dendritic nature of LC neurons allows their axons to spread NE throughout the whole forebrain. Likewise, a prion-like hypothesis suggests that Tau aggregates may travel along LC axons to reach out cortical neurons. Despite this timing is compatible with cross-sectional studies, there is no actual evidence for a causal relationship between these events. In the present mini-review, we dedicate special emphasis to those various mechanisms that may link degeneration of LC neurons to the onset of AD pathology. This includes the hypothesis that a damage to LC neurons contributes to the onset of dementia due to a loss of neuroprotective effects or, even the chance that, LC degenerates independently from cortical pathology. At the same time, since LC neurons are lost in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders we considered which molecular mechanism may render these brainstem neurons so vulnerable.
Responsiveness to hypnotic procedures has been related to unusual eye behaviors for centuries. Kallio and collaborators claimed recently that they had found a reliable index for "the hypnotic state" through eye-tracking methods. Whether or not hypnotic responding involves a special state of consciousness has been part of a contentious debate in the field, so the potential validity of their claim would constitute a landmark. However, their conclusion was based on 1 highly hypnotizable individual compared with 14 controls who were not measured on hypnotizability. We sought to replicate their results with a sample screened for High (n = 16) or Low (n = 13) hypnotizability. We used a factorial 2 (high vs. low hypnotizability) x 2 (hypnosis vs. resting conditions) counterbalanced order design with these eye-tracking tasks: Fixation, Saccade, Optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), Smooth pursuit, and Antisaccade (the first three tasks has been used in Kallio et al.'s experiment). Highs reported being more deeply in hypnosis than Lows but only in the hypnotic condition, as expected. There were no significant main or interaction effects for the Fixation, OKN, or Smooth pursuit tasks. For the Saccade task both Highs and Lows had smaller saccades during hypnosis, and in the Antisaccade task both groups had slower Antisaccades during hypnosis. Although a couple of results suggest that a hypnotic condition may produce reduced eye motility, the lack of significant interactions (e.g., showing only Highs expressing a particular eye behavior during hypnosis) does not support the claim that eye behaviors (at least as measured with the techniques used) are an indicator of a "hypnotic state.” Our results do not preclude the possibility that in a more spontaneous or different setting the experience of being hypnotized might relate to specific eye behaviors.
Hypnosis is an effective complement in the treatment of many psychological and medical disorders. The objective of this article is to expose hypnosis’s historical precedents and to point out its contribution in the treatment of various diseases. Was checked the results of precedent researches with clinical relevance, showing that, when hypnosis is used as a complement for other medical and psychological interventions, its efficiency is increased. Its main applications are focus in to relieve pain, dream’s disorders, smoking cessation, the obesity, the asthma, enuresis in children, skin diseases, the drop of anxiety symptoms, sexual failure, the develop of capacity for attention and creative skills. It is also used in the treatment of immunological disorders, the drop of symptoms in patient with fibromyalgia, in disorders of irritable colon and children with stomach disorders.
Owing to the increasing importance of clinical hypnosis in pain therapy and palliative care, there is a growing interest in uncovering the mechanism underlying hypnotic analgesia. The neurophysiological findings suggest that the hypnotic state is associated with an altered operating mode of the brain that is clearly different from the normal operating mode. While in the normal operating mode a dolorogenic stimulus induces a highly synchronized large-scale activity pattern that leads to the experience of pain, the altered operating mode inhibits the synchronization of spatially divided brain regions. As a consequence, the conscious experience of pain cannot arise. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism, a novel theoretical framework is made use of. It accepts consciousness as a fundamental property of the universe and is based on the hypothesis that the whole range of phenomenal qualities is built into the frequency spectrum of a ubiquitous background field. The body of evidence supports the view that in the normal operating mode our brains act as filters that extract the plethora of phenomenal nuances selectively from this field. In the altered operating mode, which establishes under hypnotic conditions, the extraction of phenomenal qualities is partially prevented. From this perspective, hypnotic analgesia is due to an impairment of the fundamental mechanism underlying conscious perception.
Suggestions can be used without formal hypnosis, especially with critically ill patients, due to their spontaneous trance state. In this paper we outline data on the effectiveness of therapeutic suggestions. We interpret the possible mechanism of therapeutic suggestions in the context of stress cognition. Basic principles of formulating suggestions are discussed and some recommended versions of non-pharmacological pain control are provided. Case vignettes are given of how suggestions are used with critically ill ICU patients.
Resumen: El creciente interés por el estudio científico de la conciencia y el actual desarrollo de herramientas de neuroimagen han permitido inves-tigar los correlatos neurobiológicos de la hipnosis y validar su utilización en el estudio de fenómenos neurocognitivos normales y patológicos. Ex-perimentalmente, se han comenzado a testear teorías que postulan que la hipnosis correspondería a un estado de conciencia neurofisiológicamente distintivo ('teorías del estado'), y teorías que postulan que la hipnosis sólo representaría diferente cambios neurofisiológicos asociados a sugestiones específicas, sin constituir un estado de conciencia ('teorías del no estado'). En este trabajo, se revisan críticamente ambas teorías, discutiendo sus ca-racterísticas principales, describiendo la evidencia neurofisiológica asocia-da a cada teoría, y analizando el estado actual del debate entre ambas. Evidencia experimental creciente apoya la idea de que un estado de con-ciencia hipnótico involucraría principalmente regiones como la corteza cingulada anterior y la corteza frontal dorsolateral, así como un patrón de conectividad cortical funcional disminuido. Asimismo, se concluye que la sugestión hipnótica ha permitido comenzar a comprender diversos proce-sos neuropsicológicos normales y patológicos. Finalmente, se plantea que la evidencia neurofisiológicas actual todavía resulta insuficiente para resol-ver el debate entre teóricos del estado versus del no estado. Palabras clave: Correlatos cerebrales de la conciencia; Estados de con-ciencia; Hipnosis; Sugestión; Teorías de estado y no estado.
Resumen: El creciente interés por el estudio científico de la conciencia y el actual desarrollo de herramientas de neuroimagen han permitido investi-gar los correlatos neurobiológicos de la hipnosis y validar su utilización en el estudio de fenómenos neurocognitivos normales y patológicos. Experi-mentalmente, se han comenzado a testear teorías que postulan que la hip-nosis correspondería a un estado de conciencia neurofisiológicamente dis-tintivo ('teorías del estado'), y teorías que postulan que la hipnosis sólo re-presentaría diferente cambios neurofisiológicos asociados a sugestiones específicas, sin constituir un estado de conciencia ('teorías del no estado'). En este trabajo, se revisan críticamente ambas teorías, discutiendo sus ca-racterísticas principales, describiendo la evidencia neurofisiológica asociada a cada teoría, y analizando el estado actual del debate entre ambas. Eviden-cia experimental creciente apoya la idea de que un estado de conciencia hipnótico involucraría principalmente regiones como la corteza cingulada anterior y la corteza frontal dorsolateral, así como un patrón de conectivi-dad cortical funcional disminuido. Asimismo, se concluye que la sugestión hipnótica ha permitido comenzar a comprender diversos procesos neurop-sicológicos normales y patológicos. Finalmente, se plantea que la evidencia neurofisiológicas actual todavía resulta insuficiente para resolver el debate entre teóricos del estado versus del no estado. Palabras clave: Correlatos cerebrales de la conciencia; Estados de con-ciencia; Hipnosis; Sugestión; Teorías de estado y no estado.
The locus coeruleus (LC) is the major noradrenergic nucleus of the brain, giving rise to fibres innervating extensive areas throughout the neuraxis. Recent advances in neuroscience have resulted in the unravelling of the neuronal circuits controlling a number of physiological functions in which the LC plays a central role. Two such functions are the regulation of arousal and autonomic activity, which are inseparably linked largely via the involvement of the LC. The LC is a major wakefulness-promoting nucleus, resulting from dense excitatory projections to the majority of the cerebral cortex, cholinergic neurones of the basal forebrain, cortically-projecting neurones of the thalamus, serotoninergic neurones of the dorsal raphe and cholinergic neurones of the pedunculopontine and laterodorsal tegmental nucleus, and substantial inhibitory projections to sleep-promoting GABAergic neurones of the basal forebrain and ventrolateral preoptic area. Activation of the LC thus results in the enhancement of alertness through the innervation of these varied nuclei. The importance of the LC in controlling autonomic function results from both direct projections to the spinal cord and projections to autonomic nuclei including the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, the nucleus ambiguus, the rostroventrolateral medulla, the Edinger-Westphal nucleus, the caudal raphe, the salivatory nuclei, the paraventricular nucleus, and the amygdala. LC activation produces an increase in sympathetic activity and a decrease in parasympathetic activity via these projections. Alterations in LC activity therefore result in complex patterns of neuronal activity throughout the brain, observed as changes in measures of arousal and autonomic function.
Mood, attention and motivation co-vary with activity in the neuromodulatory systems of the brain to influence behaviour. These psychological states, mediated by neuromodulators, have a profound influence on the cognitive processes of attention, perception and, particularly, our ability to retrieve memories from the past and make new ones. Moreover, many psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders are related to dysfunction of these neuromodulatory systems. Neurons of the brainstem nucleus locus coeruleus are the sole source of noradrenaline, a neuromodulator that has a key role in all of these forebrain activities. Elucidating the factors that control the activity of these neurons and the effect of noradrenaline in target regions is key to understanding how the brain allocates attention and apprehends the environment to select, store and retrieve information for generating adaptive behaviour.
Purpose
Intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) offers a unique window on brain dynamics with excellent temporal and spatial resolution and is less prone to recording artefacts than surface EEG. This study used a within-subject design to explore the feasibility to compare iEEG data during mind wandering, mindfulness meditation and hypnosis.
Results
Three patients who had iEEG for clinical monitoring and who were new to mindfulness meditation and hypnosis were able to enter these states. We found non-specific and wide-spread amplitude modulations. Data-driven connectivity analysis revealed widespread connectivity patterns that were common across the three conditions. These were predominant in the low frequencies (delta, theta and alpha) and characterised by positively correlated activity. Connectivity patterns that were unique to the three conditions predominated in the gamma band, one third of the correlations in these patterns were negative.
Conclusions
This study is the first to support the feasibility of a direct comparison of the neural correlates of mindfulness meditation and hypnosis using iEEG. These modulations may reflect the complex interplay between different known brain networks, and warrant further functional investigations in particular in the gamma band.
Alterations in thalamic GABAergic signaling are implicated in mediating the rise in 12-30Hz electroencephalogram (EEG) activity that signals anesthetic-induced loss-of-consciousness with GABAA receptor-targeting general anesthetics. A number of modeling studies have identified that anesthetic-induced alterations in thalamocortico-corticothalamic signaling in the same network that generates sleep spindles would be sufficient to elicit this key EEG signature of anesthetic hypnosis with general anesthetic agents. Accordingly, we hypothesize that targeted stimulation of this thalamic GABAergic circuitry into a sleep-spindle mode of activity would promote the general anesthetic effects of etomidate. We recorded EEG activity and loss-of-righting reflex in transgenic mice expressing channel rhodopsin-2 on GABAergic neurons (ChR2-VGAT, n=8) and control, wild-type mice (C57BL/6J, n=8). On two consecutive days mice were randomly assigned to receive spindle-rhythm stimulation via an optical probe targeting the left reticular thalamic nucleus or no stimulation. After an initial 30-minute recording, mice were administered etomidate (12mg/kg, intraperitoneal) and recorded for 90 minutes with or without optical stimulation. Etomidate elicited an increase in 12-30Hz EEG power in wild-type and ChR2-VGAT mice for 20 minutes following administration (p<0.001). Optical spindle-rhythm stimulation prolonged the increase in 12-30Hz activity in ChR2-VGAT mice only (p=0.023). Spindle-rhythm stimulation also increased the incidence and duration of sleep spindle-like oscillations in ChR2-VGAT mice only (all p≤0.001). Despite the maintained anesthetic-like changes in EEG activity, optical spindle-rhythm stimulation was not associated with changes in the time to and duration of the loss-of-righting reflex, a behavioral endpoint of etomidate-induced general anesthesia in rodents.
Hypnosis is a technique which induces changes in perceptual experience by responding to specific suggestions. By means of functional neuroimaging, a large body of clinical and experimental studies has shown that hypnotic processes modify internal (self awareness) as well as external (environmental awareness) brain networks. Objective quantifications of this kind permit the characterization of cerebral changes after hypnotic induction and its uses in the clinical setting.
Hypnosedation is one such application, as it combines hypnosis with local anesthesia in patients undergoing surgery. The power of this technique lies in the avoidance of general anesthesia and its potential complications that emerge during and after surgery. Hypnosedation is associated with improved intraoperative comfort and reduced peri-operative anxiety and pain. It ensures a faster recovery of the patient and diminishes the intraoperative requirements for sedative or analgesic drugs. Mechanisms underlying the modulation of pain perception under hypnotic conditions involve cortical and subcortical areas, mainly the implication of the anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortices, as well as the basal ganglia and thalami. In that respect, hypnosis-induced analgesia is an effective and highly cost-benefit alternative to sedation during surgery and symptom management.
Objective
The usefulness of the rapid‐induction techniques of hypnosis as an adjunctive weight‐loss treatment has not been defined. This randomized controlled trial evaluated whether self‐conditioning techniques (self‐hypnosis) added to lifestyle interventions contributed to weight loss (primary outcome), changes in metabolic and inflammatory variables, and quality of life (QoL) improvement (secondary outcomes) in severe obesity.
Methods
Individuals (with BMI = 35‐50 kg/m²) without organic or psychiatric comorbidity were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 60) or control arm (n = 60). All received exercise and behavioral recommendations and individualized diets. The intervention consisted of three hypnosis sessions, during which self‐hypnosis was taught to increase self‐control before eating. Diet, exercise, satiety, QoL, anthropometric measurements, and blood variables were collected and measured at enrollment and at 1 year (trial end).
Results
A similar weight loss was observed in the intervention (−6.5 kg) and control (−5.6 kg) arms (β = −0.45; 95% CI: −3.78 to 2.88; P = 0.79). However, habitual hypnosis users lost more weight (−9.6 kg; β = −10.2; 95% CI: −14.2 to −6.18; P < 0.001) and greatly reduced their caloric intake (−682.5 kcal; β = −643.6; 95% CI: −1064.0 to −223.2; P = 0.005) in linear regression models. At trial end, the intervention arm showed lower C‐reactive protein values (β = −2.55; 95% CI: −3.80 to −1.31; P < 0.001), higher satiety (β = 19.2; 95% CI: 7.71‐30.6; P = 0.001), and better QoL (β = 0.09; 95% CI: 0.02‐0.16; P = 0.01).
Conclusions
Self‐hypnosis was not associated with differences in weight change but was associated with improved satiety, QoL, and inflammation. Indeed, habitual hypnosis users showed a greater weight loss.
Hypnosis has proven clinical utility, yet changes in brain activity underlying the hypnotic state have not yet been fully identified. Previous research suggests that hypnosis is associated with decreased default mode network (DMN) activity and that high hypnotizability is associated with greater functional connectivity between the executive control network (ECN) and the salience network (SN). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate activity and functional connectivity among these three networks in hypnosis. We selected 57 of 545 healthy subjects with very high or low hypnotizability using two hypnotizability scales. All subjects underwent four conditions in the scanner: rest, memory retrieval, and two different hypnosis experiences guided by standard pre-recorded instructions in counterbalanced order. Seeds for the ECN, SN, and DMN were left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), respectively. During hypnosis there was reduced activity in the dACC, increased functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC;ECN) and the insula in the SN, and reduced connectivity between the ECN (DLPFC) and the DMN (PCC). These changes in neural activity underlie the focused attention, enhanced somatic and emotional control, and lack of self-consciousness that characterizes hypnosis.
Abstract Evidence supports the efficacy of hypnotic treatments, but there remain many unresolved questions regarding how hypnosis produces its beneficial effects. Most theoretical models focus more or less on biological, psychological, and social factors. This scoping review summarizes the empirical findings regarding the associations between specific factors in each of these domains and response to hypnosis. The findings indicate that (a) no single factor appears primary, (b) different factors may contribute more or less to outcomes in different subsets of individuals or for different conditions, and (c) comprehensive models of hypnosis that incorporate factors from all 3 domains may ultimately prove to be more useful than more restrictive models that focus on just 1 or a very few factors.
Se realizó un estudio de intervención en la Clínica Estomatológica de Adultos del municipio Florida entre Marzo de 2005 y Enero del 2007 con el objetivo de evaluar la eficacia de la aplicación de técnicas de relajación en pacientes con ansiedad al tratamiento estomatológico. El universo de estudio estuvo constituido por 39 pacientes mayores de 15 años con miedo al tratamiento estomatológico. La muestra quedó constituida por 31 pacientes. La investigación se concibió en 4 fases: preparatoria, ejecución, evaluativa y procesamiento informativo. El 74,19% de los pacientes refirió como causas de miedo estomatológico la impresión producida por el equipo e instrumentales estomatológicos, el ruido de equipos (54,84%) y las experiencias dolorosas anteriores (48,39%). Al inicio de la investigación predominaron los pacientes con ansiedad marcada (54,84%) y estado de salud bucal malo (67,74%). El 54,84% de los pacientes necesitaron de una a tres sesiones de relajación para comenzar el tratamiento estomatológico. La mayoría de los pacientes pasaron al nivel inmediato inferior que presentaban. Las técnicas de relajación resultaron eficaces en el 67,74% de los pacientes.
The locus coeruleus (LC) has been implicated in a variety of physiological functions including sleep/wakefulness, cognition/memory, stress/emotion, and pain. Marked loss of LC-noradrenergic (NAergic) neurons is observed in autopsy specimens of patients with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease (PD), and part of the clinical symptoms of these diseases may be related to dysfunction of the LC. Neurotoxins have been utilized to ablate LC-NAergic neurons in experimental animals for elucidating the pathophysiological implication of the loss of LC, but there are methodological drawbacks in previously utilized methods. We employed immunotoxin-mediated neuronal targeting to overcome these problems. Following complete disruption of the LC-NAergic neurons by immunotoxin, mice showed behavioral changes, which resembled the nonmotor symptoms of PD. The LC-NAergic neurons did not regenerate following ablation, so the immunotoxin-mediated neuronal targeting may be useful especially for studying the long-term effects of the loss of LC-NAergic neurons on brain functions.
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