Category: Follower

The effect of chronic insomnia carries along a physical and psychological state of dysfunctionality felt by the individual. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of hypnotherapeutic intervention applied in the case of patients
who present insomnia accompanied by rumination. We performed the study of 42 patients who underwent the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) for the psychiatric evaluation and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep quality at baseline, 1 month after the program and follow-up (2months) after finalizing the program.
Our findings revealed that hypnotherapeutic intervention that involves relaxation and positive self-suggestion leads to positive results among the patient who experience insomnia accompanied by rumination.

Hypnotic treatment in severe chronic diseases, for pain and symptoms relief, has proven efficacy as adjuvant therapy, and should be offered to any individual, who expresses an interest in this method. While some theorize hypnotizability as a changing attribute of the individual, there is a growing body of literature that indicates hypnotizability may be characterized as a constellation of potentially modifiable attitudes and skills, which are strongly influenced by related factors, as suffering, in severe chronic diseases. In this article, I briefly review representative studies recognizing how clinical hypnosis in medicine is an effective complementary therapy, for pain and symptom’s relief in severe chronic diseases and in palliative care.

A randomized clinical study was conducted to evaluate the effects on anxiety, depression, stress and optimism levels of an audio recorded clinical hypnosis intervention and a music session and compare them with a control group in women scheduled for breast biopsy. We analyzed the data of 170 patients with an average age of 47 years, who were randomly assigned to each of the groups. The psychosocial variables were measured in three moments: baseline, which corresponds to the period before the intervention with hypnosis, music or waiting in the room before biopsy;

Imaging of the living human brain elucidates the neural dynamics of hypnosis; however, few reliable brain patterns emerge across studies.
Here, we methodically assess neuroimaging assays of hypnosis to uncover common neural configurations using a twofold approach. First, we systematically review research on the neural correlates of hypnotic phenomena; then, we meta-analyze these collective data seeking specific
activation and deactivation patterns that typify hypnosis. Anchored around the role of top-down control processes, our comprehensive examination focuses on the involvement of intrinsic brain networks known to support cognitive control and self-referential cognition, including the executive, salience, and default networks. We discuss how these neural dynamics may relate to contemporary theories of hypnosis and show that hypnosis correlates with activation of the lingual gyrus—a brain region involved in higher order visual processing and mental imagery. Our findings help to better understand the neurobiological substrates comprising the appellation hypnosis.

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.