A hypnotically based intervention to enhance creativity in drawing was evaluated in a controlled study. Participants were randomly assigned to either a hypnotic treatment or a nonhypnotic (task-motivational) control treatment. Subjects drew a standard still-life tableau twice. The first drawing involved no special instructions and provided a baseline measure of creativity in drawing. The second drawing was completed after the creativity-enhancement procedure. The drawings were rated blindly on several dimensions of artistic creativity. Hypnotizability, absorption, and debriefing measures were also administered. Results indicated that the hypnotic procedure had significantly greater effects on creativity in drawing. However, there were no significant main effects or interactions involving hypnotizability or absorption. Hypnotic and task-motivational groups did not differ on debriefing measures regarding their experience.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2007 Oct;55(4):467-85. Council JR, Bromley KA, Zabelina DL, Waters CG. North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota 58105, USA. james.council@ndsu.edu

To highlight the effects of hypnotic focused analgesia (HFA), 20 healthy participants underwent a cold pressor test (CPT) in waking basal conditions (WBC) by keeping the right hand in icy water until tolerable (pain tolerance); subjective pain was quantified by visual scale immediately before extracting the hand from water. The test was then repeated while the participants were under hypnosis and underwent HFA suggestions. Cardiovascular parameters were continuously monitored. Pain tolerance was 121.5+/-96.1 sec in WBC and 411.0+/-186.7 sec during HFA (p < 0.0001), and visual rating score 7.75+/-2.29 and 2.45+/-2.98 (p < 0.0001), respectively. CPT-induced increase of total peripheral resistance was non significant during HFA and +21% (p < 0.01) in WBC. HFA therefore reduced both perception and the reflex cardiovascular consequences of pain as well. This indicates that hypnotic analgesia implies a decrease of sensitivity and/or a block of transmission of painful stimuli, with depression of the nervous reflex arc.

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Padova, Via Giustiniani No. 2, Padova, Italy. edoardo.casiglia@unipd.it

Am J Clin Hypn. 2007 Apr;49(4):255-66.

To highlight the effects of hypnotic focused analgesia (HFA), 20 healthy participants underwent a cold pressor test (CPT) in waking basal conditions (WBC) by keeping the right hand in icy water until tolerable (pain tolerance); subjective pain was quantified by visual scale immediately before extracting the hand from water. The test was then repeated while the participants were under hypnosis and underwent HFA suggestions. Cardiovascular parameters were continuously monitored. Pain tolerance was 121.5+/-96.1 sec in WBC and 411.0+/-186.7 sec during HFA (p < 0.0001), and visual rating score 7.75+/-2.29 and 2.45+/-2.98 (p < 0.0001), respectively. CPT-induced increase of total peripheral resistance was non significant during HFA and +21% (p < 0.01) in WBC. HFA therefore reduced both perception and the reflex cardiovascular consequences of pain as well. This indicates that hypnotic analgesia implies a decrease of sensitivity and/or a block of transmission of painful stimuli, with depression of the nervous reflex arc.

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Padova, Via Giustiniani No. 2, Padova, Italy. edoardo.casiglia@unipd.it

In addition to exacerbating morbidity in male coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS) patients, their plight can also impose considerable strain on their female spouses' mood states, resulting in compromised quality of life. The current study was aimed at determining the impact of pre postoperative hypnotherapeutic ego strengthening (HES) on anxiety and depression in female spouses. It was conducted simultaneously with a recently published study of their CABS husbands' response to HES. Spouses whose husbands had been randomly assigned to an experimental group, were designated the experimental spouse group (n = 25) and spouses whose husbands constituted the control group, likewise comprised the control spouse group (n = 25). Assessment occurred preoperatively, on the day of discharge and at six week follow-up. Spouses in the experimental group (n = 25) were introduced to hypnotherapeutic ego strengthening (HES), pre and postoperatively. In the postoperative assessment experimental female spouses showed significantly reduced morbidity levels, which were maintained at follow-up. In contrast, females in the control group (n = 25) showed no change. The results supported the value of brief hypnotherapy as a means of psychologically empowering spouses whose husbands' were undergoing CABS.

Unitas Hospital, Pretoria, Sinoville. itsoft@mweb.co.za

A special report published in Circulation by the American Heart Association, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine examines the impact of mind-body techniques, and, because it is seen as the most widely researched method, Transcendental Medititation on Heart Disease.

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An article in last year's Journal of the American Medical Association reports that 292 women from Stockholm, Sweden were followed for nearly 5 years from the time they experienced either a heart attack or unstable angina pectoris, to see if work stress and/or relationship stress increased their risk of heart trouble (cardiac death, acute myocardial infarction or the need for other surgical repairs). Adjusting for intervening factors such as age, estrogen status, education, smoking, diagnosis, diabetes, triglicerides, and lipoproteins, the team of Orth-Gomer, Wamala, Horsten, Schenck-Gustafsson, Schneiderman and Mittleman found that marital stress increased the women's risk by nearly three times.

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Researchers at the Bedford, Massachusetts V.A. Medical Center find that training patients suffering from moderate to severe heart failure to use the Relaxation Response improves quality of life but not exercise capacity.

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Well, the first round of Mitch Krucoff's and Suzanne Crater's MANTRA prayer study has been collated and published. The results, even in pilot form, are intriguing.

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Forty-six patients were randomized to receive drug (group 1) or hypnotic sedation (group 2) during balloon angioplasty of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Patients were continuously monitored by intracoronary and standard electrocardiograms, and heart rate spectral variability was also recorded.

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When sixty- three patients, ages 7-49, were offered to be taught self-hypnosis by their pulmonologist, forty-nine agreed to learn it. The average age was 18.1. Patients generally were taught hypnosis in one or two sessions. Outcomes were determined by patients' answers to open-ended questions regarding their subjective evaluation of the efficacy of hypnosis. Many of the patients used hypnosis for more than one purpose, including general relaxation (61% of patients), relief of pain associated with medical procedures (31%), headache relief (16%), changing the taste of medications to make the flavor more palatable (10%), and control of other symptoms associated with CF (18%).

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Preliminary findings are in from Traci Stein, MPH, Director of The Columbia Integrative Medicine Program and whiz statistician, Peri Nemerow, both from Mehmet Oz's group at Columbia Presbyterian. They tested out our new guided imagery for cardiac ICU & cardiac rehab on 20 patients (average age = 63) who'd undergone by-pass, valve replacement and transplant surgeries, and surveyed them for feedback on the imagery. It turned out that 90% liked listening to the tape; 79% would recommend the tape to a friend; 71% thought it made their hospital stay more pleasant; 83.3 % felt it increased their appreciation for being alive; 80% thought it helped them to better savor the things that they loved; 80% thought it gave them confidence they would regain their strength; 66.7% said it made them feel more positively about their scars; 75% felt it made them less depressed; and 80% felt it made them more relaxed. We also think it only fair to tell you that some thought it was weird. Interestingly enough, patients reported similar levels of satisfaction regardless of age or gender, or whether they'd listened to imagery before. Most patients listened to the tape just once. The team is now looking to do further research with a larger sample size, going for more objective outcome measures of things like blood pressure, heart rate, pain and length of stay.

We investigated the effect of autogenic training (AT) on cardiac autonomic nervous activity in fire services workers with the use of the questionnaire of the Japanese-language version of Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R-J) and indexes of heart rate variability. METHODS: We studied 22 male fire services workers who were divided into posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related stress group (n=10) and control group (n=12). They underwent AT twice or three times a week for 2 months. RESULTS: Posttraumatic stress disorder-related stress group showed a significantly higher cardiac sympathetic nervous activity and a significantly lower cardiac parasympathetic nervous activity than control group at baseline. Autogenic training significantly decreased cardiac sympathetic nervous activity and significantly increased cardiac parasympathetic nervous activity in both groups. These changes were accompanied by a significant decrease in the total points of IES-R-J. CONCLUSION: Autogenic training is effective for ameliorating the disturbance of cardiac autonomic nervous activity and psychological issues secondary to PTSD.

Department of Health Promotion and Human Behavior, Kyoto University Graduate School of Public Health, Yoshida-Konoe cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.

In addition to exacerbating morbidity in male coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS) patients, their plight can also impose considerable strain on their female spouses' mood states, resulting in compromised quality of life. The current study was aimed at determining the impact of pre postoperative hypnotherapeutic ego strengthening (HES) on anxiety and depression in female spouses. It was conducted simultaneously with a recently published study of their CABS husbands' response to HES. Spouses whose husbands had been randomly assigned to an experimental group, were designated the experimental spouse group (n = 25) and spouses whose husbands constituted the control group, likewise comprised the control spouse group (n = 25). Assessment occurred preoperatively, on the day of discharge and at six week follow-up. Spouses in the experimental group (n = 25) were introduced to hypnotherapeutic ego strengthening (HES), pre and postoperatively. In the postoperative assessment experimental female spouses showed significantly reduced morbidity levels, which were maintained at follow-up. In contrast, females in the control group (n = 25) showed no change. The results supported the value of brief hypnotherapy as a means of psychologically empowering spouses whose husbands' were undergoing CABS.

Unitas Hospital, Pretoria, Sinoville. itsoft@mweb.co.za