A noteworthy study found that using hypnosis during a stressful procedure such as breast biopsy plays a significant role in reducing anxiety levels for patients. It empirically showed that those women who were made to self induce into a slightly hypnotic state experienced lesser stress, finished the procedure faster and even indirectly helped the staff attending to them.
The study, led by Dr. Elvira Lang, from the radiology department of the Harvard Medical School in Boston was presented recently at the largest medical community gathering of 62,000 people. Dr. Lang included 236 women in her observations and divided them into three groups.
The first group of 76 women were provided with regular standard procedures, while another 82 women were given 'empathetic treatment'. This involved the presence of a friend, relative or attendant who was extremely responsive to the patient's reactions and needs.
The third group of 78 women were encouraged to promote self hypnosis with the help of someone else reading out guiding instructions. The script included asking patients to roll their eyes up, to concentrate on their breathing, imagine themselves floating.
On analyzing levels of anxiety and adverse events in the groups, Lang found that while all three groups began with high anxiety levels, those of the standard treatment shot up during the procedure. The patients who were given empathetic treatment had consistent stress levels, while stress felt by the hypnosis group reduced considerably during the procedure.
Added, there were differences in the average time period that it took for the three groups to perform the biopsies – while the standard care patients took an average of 46 minutes, the empathetic group averaged 43 minutes. In contrast, the patients under hypnotherapy took only 39 minutes to finish the biopsy. Lang explains that they possibly moved less, thereby helping the doctors to perform better and faster.
Dr. Elvira Lang emphatically stated at the 92nd annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America that such non-pharmacologic methods go a long way in reducing anxiety for patients, without any aide effects and often at no extra costs. In fact, Dr. Michael Brant-Zawadzki from Newport Beach, California asserts that physicians are always trained to use positive interaction – a training that few put into practice.
