Hypnosis Benefits Breast Cancer Patients

Breast cancer and hypnosis may seem like an unlikely combination and hypnosis has had many things attributed to it over the centuries that it is not actually capable of. A new study showed however that women who underwent hypnosis before undergoing a mastectomy suffered a reduced amount of pain after the surgery for breast cancer. The results of the finding were reported in the August 28^th edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study consisted of two groups of two hundred women about to undergo surgeries. Doctors randomly assigned the participants to group that would receive hypnosis and another that would not. The first group, the control group, received a fifteen minute talk with a psychotherapist that was supported, the second group was put under hypnosis by a mental health professionals that underwent training to use hypnosis in medical settings. Those who received the hypnosis therapy underwent guided relaxations, pleasant visual imagery and soothing techniques.

After the women underwent the surgery, the progress and speed of recovery was tracked for each group of women. Those who underwent the hypnosis reported less of the typical symptoms as a result of treatment. Patients who undergo this type of surgery usually suffer from nausea, fatigue, and pain. The group that received hypnosis not only recovered more quickly, but required less anesthesia and suffered less from the usual symptoms than the patients undergoing surgery for breast cancer who did not.

The study confirms roughly a century and a half of speculation that how patients perceive pain is directly or indirectly controlled by the mind. The doctors who conducted the survey believe it will have uses in other types of surgery and treatment also. A side benefit may also be reduced cost. The people who received hypnosis before undergoing a lumpectomy also cost less to treat. The average reduction in medical bills was $773 dollars per patient, due to the shorter amount of time needed for treatment.

It may be a while before we see hypnosis given to patients before all surgeries, but the studies indicate that it has benefits beyond this specific type of treatment. In the future doctors may also use the technique to make their bills seem like reasonable deals to their patients of HMOs might require it not only to reduce costs but to suggest their idea is what is really needed for the patient over their actual doctor's recommendations. Now if medical science can just find away to remove needles entirely from their profession.

Sources:

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29185

http://www.physorg.com/news107541223.html