Some Chest Pains Respond to Hypnosis

Severe chest pain can be alarming, as one immediately thinks it’s heart trouble – maybe a heart attack. But as many as one in three people with it, who are fully investigated, have no evidence of coronary artery disease. It’s called non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP), and it’s an enigma. Despite reassurance, the patients – often young women – are, not surprisingly, still incapacitated. Other reasons, such as acid reflux, have to be excluded. But there remains a core of patients who are very difficult to treat.

Researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, have studied hypnosis in these patients, and reported their findings in the medical journal Gut. Fifteen subjects were given 12 sessions of hypnotherapy by a non-physician therapist, and a further 13 patients served as controls, receiving supportive therapy and placebo medication.

In 12 of the 15 hypnotized patients (80% there was overall improvement in pain, with reduced intensity, though not frequency; they also reported greater general well being and reduced medication use. The same beneficial responses were reported in 3 of the 13 controls (23%).

The same researchers have described similar beneficial effects on symptoms in some patients with irritable bowel syndrome. They believe hypnotherapy may have use in other so-called ‘functional gastrointestinal disorders’, too. Maybe Mesmerism is finding a renewed place in medicine!