Many theories of hypnotic responding have proposed that differences in hypnotic trait rely on differences in frontal attentional functions. Evidence of hypnotizability-related attentional abilities are, however, very scant. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between hypnotizability and executive control components of attention in the spatial domain. We chose the Attention Network Test that enables to analyze alerting, orienting and executive control functions by measuring reaction times (RTs) to targets cued for different locations in space. According to Posner theory, alerting, orienting and executive control effects were found in both groups. No differences between highly susceptible (Highs) and low susceptible individuals (Lows) on executive control functions were found. However, in Highs alerting was significantly smaller than in Lows and Highs were significantly faster than Lows in the no and central cue conditions. These findings suggest that Highs would be endowed with a basal higher efficiency in achieving and maintaining their readiness to respond to incoming stimuli. This relation between hypnotizability and alerting, is discussed in terms of a possible more efficient noradrenergic activity driven by frontal attentional systems.

Castellani E, D'Alessandro L, Sebastiani L. Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, University of Pisa, Via S. Zeno 31, 56127 Pisa, Italy.

by John Krukowski, C.H.

History:
The subject a physically fit athletic male 47 suffered a stroke while jogging when he was 41. The resulting paralysis was loss of use of left side. After 4 years of conventional therapy and some holistic therapy he regained a limited 25% use of his left side. It appeared the limits of this therapy for him had been reached with little or no improvement for the next 2.8 years.

Prior to hypnotherapy:
Visual observations; Subject's left foot turned out 45 degrees, Subject's left knee not flexing during walking with compensating movement transferred to hip. Subject's Left arm and hand had only about 3% usage with little more than the ability to make fingers move as a group and not independently. Also the left arm held to his chest with hand in a claw shape typical of many stroke sufferers. Visual muscle spasms in left leg. Subject's physical limitations in mobility were inability to negotiate steps higher that 8 inches(20 cm) or walking more that 150 feet (50 meters) without severe muscle spasms.

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This randomized, controlled clinical trial from Concord Hospital, New Hampshire, tests the effect of two mind-body-spirit nursing interventions - guided imagery and music therapy - on postoperative pain, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), and length of stay, in 84 patients undergoing gynecologic laparoscopy.

During the perioperative period, patients were randomly assigned to one of 3 interventions: guided imagery audiotapes (GI), music audiotapes (MU), or standard care (C), and outcome measures were evaluated.

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Italian researchers at the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology at The University of Torino reviewed the literature to see how migraine headaches are treated during pregnancy, when hormones exacerbate the condition, while many standard drugs are contra-indicated.

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A recent meta-analysis by the Department of Women's Anaesthesia of Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia looked at the effects of hypnosis for pain relief during childbirth. Embase, Pubmed, and the Cochrane library 2004.1 were searched for clinical trials where hypnosis during pregnancy and childbirth was compared with a non-hypnosis intervention, no treatment or placebo. There were no language restrictions.

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The same principal investigator, E. Solberg, studied the effects of meditation on competitive shooting performance. Twenty-five elite shooters performed standardized test shooting, indoors and outdoors. Their performance was assessed before and after regular meditation training.

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When Dr. Rogerio Lobo, Chair of Columbia Presbyterian's Department of OBGYN, and Dr. Kwang Y. Cha, a researcher at Cha Hospital in Seoul, studied the effect of intercessory prayer on the pregnancy rates of 219 women, aged 26-46 years old, being treated with in vitro fertilization, they found that the prayed-for group had double the pregnancy rate (50% vs. 26%, P = .0013) and double the implantation rate (16.3% vs. 8%, P = .0005).

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In 1998, a research team led by Linda Halpin at the Inova Heart Center of Inova Fairfax Hospital compared cardiac surgical outcomes between two groups of heart patients - with and without guided imagery. A questionnaire was developed to assess the benefits of the guided imagery program to those who elected to participate in it, and, in addition, data from the hospital financial cost-accounting database were collected and matched to the two groups of patients.

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Meta-analysis by investigators at the Department of Women's Anaesthesia of Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, looked at evidence regarding the effects of hypnosis for pain relief during childbirth.

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Researchers at Peninsula Medical School, at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in the UK conducted a review of the literature to determine the effectiveness of complementary therapies on reducing body weight.

Researchers at Peninsula Medical School, at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth in the UK conducted a review of the literature to determine the effectiveness of complementary therapies on reducing body weight.

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This study examines the effect of adding hypnosis to a behavioral weight-management program on short- and long-term weight change. One hundred nine subjects, ranging in age from 17 to 67, completed a behavioral treatment either with or without the addition of hypnosis.

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Researchers from Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK, looked to see whether hypnotherapy was effective for weight loss. A randomized, controlled, parallel study looked at two forms of hypnotherapy - one directed at stress reduction and the other at intake reduction, as compared to dietary advice alone, in 60 obese patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

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Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Connecticut published a 3rd meta-analysis of the effect of adding hypnosis to cognitive-behavioral treatments for weight reduction, using additional data from 2 new studies, and computational inaccuracies in both previous meta-analyses were corrected.

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A randomized controlled trial compared a group of bulimic patients receiving 6 weeks of individual guided imagery therapy with a control group receiving standard care. Fifty participants who met the criteria for bulimia nervosa completed the study. Measures of eating disorder symptoms, psychological functioning and the response to the guided imagery experience were used. The guided imagery treatment substantially reduced bingeing and purging episodes; the imagery group had a 74% mean reduction of bingeing and a 73% reduction of vomiting. The imagery treatment also demonstrated improvement in attitudes about eating, dieting and body weight in comparison to the control group. In addition, the guided imagery group demonstrated improvement on psychological measures of aloneness and the ability for self-comforting. The study concludes that guided imagery is an effective treatment for bulimia nervosa, at least in the short-term.

Jeff Rossman, PhD, Director of Behavioral Medicine at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, conducted a study with 16 staff members as part of a general behavioral/educational program for weight loss. As with the Joslin study, half the group used the Weight Loss tape; the other half just listened to Music II. The group that listened daily to the weight loss guided imagery tape while attending an 8-week weight reduction program, lost an average of 8.5 pounds. The group that listened daily to just the music from the weight loss tape, while participating in the same program, lost an average of 4.25 pounds, exactly half. The study ran for eight weeks, and results are being tabulated now, even as you read this. Rossman says that at superficial glance, the guided imagery group seems to have done extremely well.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut at Storrs ran a third meta-analysis of the effect of adding hypnosis to a behavioral program for weight reduction. They collected data from 2 more studies, and corrected for computational inaccuracies in the 2 previous meta-analyses. Just as with the Canyon Ranch pilot study with our Weight Loss imagery, it continues to look like adding a right brain intervention like hypnosis and/or imagery to a behavioral program will double weight loss.

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Researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Kowloon, in a randomized, controlled clinical trial, studied the efficacy of mental imagery at promoting relearning for people after a stroke. Subjects were forty-six inpatients, 60 years of age or older, after a cerebral infarction, who were patients in an inpatient rehabilitation stroke unit in Hong Kong. They were randomized to receive 15 sessions (1 hour a day for 3 weeks) of either the mental imagery program or the conventional functional training intervention on the relearning of daily living tasks.

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Researchers from the Department of Rehabilitation, Laval University and Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation and Social Integration, Quebec City, ran a controlled, clinical trial examining the potential of using "mental practice" (MP) to promote the learning of 2 mobility tasks in people who suffered a stroke.

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Tiller, McCraty and Atkinson of the Institute of HeartMath found that subjects who were trained to use a heart-focused stress-reduction technique that shifted their attention away from stress and toward their hearts, while focusing on feelings of love, caring and appreciation, showed evidence of increased cardiac coherence and stability. This supports the imagery methodology we've been using on many of our tapes.

A placebo controlled, randomized study by J.A. Blumenthal et al, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 1997; 157: 2213-2223, (called Stress Management and Exercise Training in Cardiac Patients with Myocardial Ischemia: Effects on Prognosis and Evaluation of Mechanisms) showed that teaching stress reduction techniques to cardiac patients reduced their risk of having further heart problems by a whopping 75%.

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Researchers at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention evaluated the effects of stress management on the quality of life, functional capacity, and heart rate variability in a pilot study of 33 elderly patients with New York Heart Association class I-III congestive heart failure. Subjects were randomized to one of two treatment groups or a wait-listed control group.

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Researchers at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention evaluated the effects of stress management on the quality of life, functional capacity, and heart rate variability in a pilot study of 33 elderly patients with New York Heart Association class I-III congestive heart failure. Subjects were randomized to one of two treatment groups or a wait-listed control group. The 14 participants who completed the treatment attended eight training sessions during a 10-week period.

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Researchers from Texas A&M University's Health Science Center conducted a preliminary study of the efficacy of a 3-session hypnosis protocol for smoking cessation.

Thirty smokers enrolled in an HMO were referred by their primary physician for treatment. Twenty-one patients returned after an initial consultation and received hypnosis for smoking cessation.

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That dynamic Danish research machine from Aarhus University, R. Zachariae, the same fellow who brought you scores of studies about the effects of hypnosis and imagery on reactions to poison ivy, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and other histamine and autoimmune afflictions, also did a nice study with psoriasis. We get a lot of questions about psoriasis and imagery, so we're pleased to show you this: Fifty-one patients with psoriasis vulgaris were randomly assigned to a treatment group (where they got 7 individual sessions over 12 weeks, learning stress management, guided imagery and relaxation skills) or a control group. All subjects were measured on the Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), Total Sign Score (TSS) and Laser Doppler Skin Blood Flow (LDBF) at weeks #4, #8 and after treatment was completed.

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Researchers at the University of Iowa studied how 3 conditions: stress, relaxation and a control condition, can affect an inflammatory response artificially induced by injecting capsaicin, the pungent compound in chili peppers, under the skin. 50 subjects 28 men and 22 women were pre-trained in relaxation, using an imagery-based relaxation tape, and then randomized to one of the experimental groups a 20-minute stress test, a relaxation tape or a video control, followed by a capsaicin injection in the forearm. Digitized measurements of flare were taken for 1 hour after the injection, as well as measurements at regular intervals of cardiovascular variables, cortisol, adrenocorticotrophic hormone, and norepinephrine.

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Researchers from the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan evaluate a post-treatment self-regulation program of self-management for 25 breast cancer patients and find it highly effective

Researchers from the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan evaluated a program of self-management for breast cancer patients after treatment. The program, called Taking CHARGE, involved a two-pronged approach building on self-regulation principles to (1) equip women with self-management skills to address concerns following breast cancer treatment, and (2) provide information about common survivorship topics.

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Investigators at Jaume I University reported their findings on the effectiveness of the "Talk to Me" interactive program on treating fear of public speaking. This internet-based, self-applied intervention has several components, including a diagnostic assessment, a structured treatment, and an outcome protocol that evaluates treatment efficacy in a continuous manner. One case study revealed a significant decrease in levels of fear and avoidance related to speaking in public. However, a pilot study is needed to confirm this promising but inconclusive case study.

Citation: Botella C, Hofmann SG, Moscovitch DA.A self-applied, Internet-based intervention for fear of public speaking. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2004 Aug; 60 (8): pages 821-30.

Gordon, Merenstein, D'Amico and Hudgens studied the effects of therapeutic touch on 25 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee in this single-blinded randomized control trial. Patients got either therapeutic touch, mock therapeutic touch or standard care. The TT treatment group had significantly decreased pain and improved function when compared with the placebo and control groups. (Journal of Family Practice, 1998; 47:pp.271-277.)

Researchers at the University of Iowa studied how 3 conditions: stress, relaxation and a control condition, can affect an inflammatory response artificially induced by injecting capsaicin, the pungent compound in chili peppers, under the skin. 50 subjects – 28 men and 22 women – were pre-trained in relaxation, using an imagery-based relaxation tape, and then randomized to one of the experimental groups – a 20-minute stress test, a relaxation tape or a video control, followed by a capsaicin injection in the forearm.

[More]

Meta-analysis by investigators at the Department of Women's Anaesthesia of Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, looked at evidence regarding the effects of hypnosis for pain relief during childbirth.

Medline, Embase, Pubmed, and the Cochrane library 2004.1 were searched for clinical trials where hypnosis during pregnancy and childbirth was compared with a non-hypnosis intervention, no treatment or a placebo.

[More]

A recent meta-analysis by the Department of Women's Anaesthesia of Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia looked at the effects of hypnosis for pain relief during childbirth. Embase, Pubmed, and the Cochrane library 2004.1 were searched for clinical trials where hypnosis during pregnancy and childbirth was compared with a non-hypnosis intervention, no treatment or placebo. There were no language restrictions.

[More]

Jim Gordon's team from The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington DC offers a preliminary evaluation of their extraordinary program in Kosovo, helping traumatized,