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Hypnosis
Can Help Control Pain Among Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer
Hypnosis can help alleviate the pain and suffering experienced by women being
treated for breast cancer, according to a study by a University at
Buffalo School of Social Work professor.
The randomized trial measured pain and suffering, frequency of pain and degree
of constant pain among 124 women with metastatic breast cancer, according
to Lisa D. Butler, associate professor in UB's School of Social Work, a faculty
member in the Buffalo Center for Social Research and first author of the
study.
Researchers recorded levels of pain at four-month intervals for a year. Women
who were assigned to the treatment group received group psychotherapy, as
well as instruction and practice in hypnosis to moderate their pain symptoms.
They reported "significantly less increase in the intensity of pain
and suffering over time," compared with a control group, who did not
receive the group psychotherapy intervention.
"The results of this study suggest that the experience of pain and
suffering for patients with metastatic breast cancer can be successfully
reduced with an intervention that includes hypnosis in a group therapy setting,"
according to Butler. "These results augment the growing literature supporting
the use of hypnosis as an adjunctive treatment for medical patients
experiencing pain."
The researchers also found that, within the treatment group, those patients who
could be hypnotized more easily - a group the researchers said
demonstrated "high hypnotizability" - reported greater benefits
from hypnosis. These patients used hypnosis more overall, including
outside of the group sessions, and in some cases used it to address other
symptoms related to their cancer.
"These results suggest that although hypnosis is not at present standard
practice for treating a wide range of symptoms that trouble cancer
patients, it is worth examining that potential," Butler says.
"Together, these findings suggest that there may be a number of
benefits to the use of hypnosis in cancer care including, but not necessarily
limited to, its more traditional application for pain control."
Butler joined the UB faculty in January 2009, after doing research at Stanford
University's School of Medicine. She was hired at UB to strengthen the
university's research focus on "extreme events" as part of the UB 2020
strategic planning initiative. She recently published a nationally
recognized study on how some people living through an extremely traumatic
event have the ability to recover or even grow in personal and interpersonal
functioning.
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