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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Long-term meditating subjects as well as energy healers who work in the altered state have long reported that the mind state that initially produced spotty transcendental experiences at isolated moments during their beginning practice, evolved to subjectively co-exist in a steady, everyday way with normal waking and sleeping states.

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In this randomized, controlled, clinical trial, researchers from The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine examined the effects of a biofeedback-assisted stress-reduction program on pain, psychological function, and perceived physical function in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) experiencing pain.

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Researchers at The University Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, in Ulm, Germany, investigated the effectiveness of autogenic relaxation training on children and adolescents in outpatient treatment for varied depressive, aggressive, impulsive, or attention deficit symptoms.

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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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The Department of Hygiene and Public Health (EBM Center) at the School of Medicine,Teikyo University, in Tokyo, Japan published a meta-analysis of 22 randomized, controlled studies investigating the efficacy of biofeedback for reducing hypertension. The 22 studies were published between 1966 and 2001, and involved a total of 905 hypertensive patients.

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Researchers from the School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Durham in the UK studied the effect of movement and stretching imagery on increases in flexibility in a randomized, controlled trial.

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In this unblinded, randomized, controlled study, researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital investigated the effectiveness of imagery when used alongside routine analgesics for reducing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy pain and anxiety after ambulatory surgery (AS) and at home.

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Investigators from the Pediatric Department of The Georgia Institute for Prevention of Human Diseases and Accidents and The Medical College of Georgia looked at the impact of stress reduction, by way of Transcendental Meditation (TM), on blood pressure (BP) in African-American adolescents averaging 16 years old (aged 16.2 +/- 1.3 years) with high normal systolic BP. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a 4-month TM group (n = 50) or health education control group (n = 50).

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Researchers from Tai Po Hospital in Hong Kong explored the effects of guided imagery and relaxation in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), using a randomized controlled design. Half of 26 participants were allocated to the treatment group, consisting of six practice sessions of guided imagery, while the control group was instructed to rest quietly during the six sessions. At the seventh session, physiological measures were taken and compared to previously, to see if there were any changes in partial percentage of oxygen saturation, heart rate, upper thoracic surface electromyography, skin conductance and peripheral skin temperature.

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A study from The Georgia Institute for Prevention of Human Diseases and Accidents shows that meditation significantly reduces blood pressure and heart rate (resting and ambulatory) in normal middle school children. In a randomized, controlled study, researchers from The Georgia Institute for Prevention of Human Diseases and Accidents evaluated the impact of a meditation program on resting and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in middle school children.

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A 1995 study published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing (vol.13: pp255-267) showed that postpartum depression in new mothers is alleviated by guided imagery. The research with 60 first-time mothers showed that those who practiced guided imagery during the first 4 weeks after giving birth had less anxiety and depression and more self-esteem and confidence than their counterparts who did not use guided imagery.

In a 1997 pilot study by McKinney, Antoni, Kumar, Tims and McCabe, 28 randomly selected adults were studied to see if the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) had an effect on mood and cortisol levels.

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One of the most complex patient treatment situations encountered by the clinician is the patient who presents with the cluster of signs and symptoms that lead to the diagnosis of fibromyalgia syndrome. While physicians focus primarily on pharmacologic treatment, a number of nonpharmacologic modalities have been shown to benefit patients as well. No one therapy is uniformly effective in every patient; treatment programs consisting of a combination of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies must be individualized to the patient, and the clinician may have to try several different modalities before reaching an optimal improvement in the patient's symptoms.

Arthritis Associates, Kingsport, TN, USA. arthritis@charter.net

Many people with cancer experience pain, anxiety, and mood disturbance. Conventional treatments do not always satisfactorily relieve these symptoms, and some patients may not be able to tolerate their side effects. Complementary therapies such as acupuncture, mind-body techniques, massage, and other methods can help relieve symptoms and improve physical and mental well-being. Self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques help reduce procedural pain.

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Researchers from Kyoto University find that autogenic training helps firefighters with posttraumatic stress, lowering cardiac sympathetic measures (indicator of alarm response) and increasing cardiac parasympathetic activity (indicator of calming response)...

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Psychological approaches to improving vision present an enticing alternative to invasive procedures and corrective lenses; hypnotic suggestion is one such technique. During the past 60 years, multiple studies have documented improvements in the vision of myopic individuals after hypnotic interventions.

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Pain-rating scores were obtained from 10 high, 10 medium, and 10 low hypnotizable subjects who were holding a painful cold bottle in their left hands and were exposed to pain reduction treatments while they were performing a secondary oddball task. All subjects received suggestions of dissociative imagery and focused analgesia as cognitive strategies for pain reduction. The following measures were obtained for tone targets of the auditory oddball task: (a) reaction time; (b) P300 peak amplitude of the event-related potentials; (c) skin conductance levels and skin conductance responses. Focused analgesia produced the most pain reduction in high, but not medium or low, hypnotizable subjects who showed shorter reaction times, higher central and parietal P300 peaks, and higher skin conductance responses. These findings were discussed vis-a-vis the dissociated-control model assuming that capacity demands of hypnotic suggestion are low.

Department of Psychology, University of Rome, La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. v.depascalis@caspur.it

Three adult cases of psychogenic dermatitis of atypical presentation were treated with direct suggestion under hypnosis (DSUH), which included suggestions for developing cooling, soothing and healing numbness in the affected areas. After a trial of 5 sessions over a period of 2 months, the results in all 3 cases were determined to be unappreciable and unsuccessful. The patients were subsequently treated with hypnoanalysis including ideomotor questioning, regression to onset, and reframing followed by direct suggestions under hypnosis (DSUH) for healing of all affected areas except a negotiated index finger on the nondominant hand. This technique proved an effective treatment that extinguished the flair-ups in 6 visits or less over a period of 2 months. These cases were followed at intervals of up to 1 year and no evidence of relapse found.

Cited from American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Jan 2005

The year 1843 saw the publication in Dresden of a comprehensive account of the magnetic treatment of a somnambulist. This date came relatively late in the history of animal magnetism in Germany, and coincided with the decline of the theory in medical circles. Perhaps it was for this reason that the authors commissioned Ludwig Richter, one of the most accomplished engravers of the day, to produce a plate of illustrations which were intended to act as a symbolic defence of the theory. They are examined in this article.

Universidad Complutense, Madrid.

The Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore launched a cross-sectional survey of intravenous drug users to determine the extent they made use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies.

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Much of the literature focuses on the pathology that falls to the far right of the Watkins (1997) differentiation-dissociation continuum, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder and Dissociative Disorder NOS. Adding a "far left" to this continuum, as well as a construct of what the "far left" looks like, makes apparent the value of healthy adaptive differentiation for those individuals that fall to the "far left" of the spectrum; those who don't differentiate enough.

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Surveys indicate that the adolescent, in particular, suffers from acute anxiety in relation to dentistry. This anxiety is promoted by the general opinion they form of dentists and dentistry through portrayal by their peers and the media.

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Notable changes have been observed in the application of psychological therapies to medicine, including psychodermatology. This review article surveys current methods used by psychologists in the management of stress-related skin disorders, including hypnosis, relaxation training, biofeedback, operant conditioning, and cognitive-behavioral therapy.

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Katherine Kolcaba, PhD, RN (U of Akron) and Christine Fox, PhD, (U of Toledo) found guided imagery to be an effective intervention for increasing comfort and reducing anxiety in 53 women with early stage breast cancer undergoing Radiation Therapy. The investigators designed and recorded imagery specifically for this study. Subjects were most likely to listen just before a treatment.

Researchers from the Department of Psychology, University of Bath, UK, conducted a study with 209 pupils to see if a stress management training program could improve their academic performance, yielding very strong results

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Researchers at Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center studied the the effects of varying the amount of physical practice and mental imagery rehearsal on learning basic surgical procedures.

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Researchers from the Division of Psychosomatic Medicine at The University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland, investigated whether hypnosis is a useful adjunct in the treatment of allergies.

In a randomised parallel group study over an observation period of two consecutive pollen seasons, 79 patients with a mean age of 34 years (range 19-54 years; 41 males), with moderate to severe allergic rhinitis to grass or birch pollen of at least 2 years duration and mild allergic asthma, were assigned to an average of 2.4 sessions of hypnosis, along with continuation of standard anti-allergic pharmacological treatment.

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A review article from the Mass. General/Harvard Medical School reports that Cogntive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is currently considered a first-line treatment for panic disorder, as well as a strategy for those who do not respond to medication, and a replacement for those who want to discontinue medication.

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Patients are often prepared for procedural discomforts with descriptions of pain or undesirable experiences. This practice is thought to be compassionate and helpful, but there is little data on the effect of such communicative behavior. This study assesses how such descriptions affect patients' pain and anxiety during medical procedures. The interactions of patients with their healthcare providers during interventional radiological procedures were videotaped during a previously reported 3-arm prospective randomized trial assessing the efficacy of self-hypnotic relaxation.

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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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Milton H. Erickson's approach to hypnosis and psychotherapy has established itself as a therapeutic paradigm in recent years. As its popularity grows, however, myths and misconceptions about his approach have also emerged. Some of them claim falsely that Erickson's therapy consists of nothing more than a set of quick, symptom-management formulae. To understand Erickson's hypnotic psychotherapy in a proper context, a systematic review is warranted. From a cognitive-psychological perspective, four of the major characteristics of therapeutic change underly Erickson's work: (a) self-efficacy, (b) spontaneous compliance, (c) cognitive/experiential reorganization, and (d) global distribution of information.

Nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting) is a socially disruptive and stressful condition which affects around 15 to 20% of five year olds, and up to 2% of young adults.

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According to Grunbaum's definition of placebo, a therapeutic procedure can be considered a nonplacebo if it can be demonstrated that its effects are produced according to the theory upon which the therapy is based.

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The NIH Clinical Center is sponsoring an 12 week study to examine whether hypnosis can reduce the frequency and intensity of pain in patients with sickle cell disease.

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Chronic pain conditions are a complex and multifactorial problem generally requiring a multidisciplinary-type approach. The central nervous system at some point clearly becomes involved in the processing of these painful conditions with an integration of complex changes in neurophysiology and behavior.

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"Hypnopuncture," a combination treatment of hypnosis and acupuncture, provides a therapeutic treatment plan for long-term therapy for patients with a distinctive gag reflex. The treatment is applied independently of the cause. In cases of emergency treatment in dentistry, the immediate compliance of a patient is of utmost importance. The long-term goal of any therapeutic measure is control of the gag reflex.

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The experience of conscious will is the feeling that we are doing things. This feeling occurs for many things we do, conveying to us again and again the sense that we consciously cause our actions. But the feeling may not be a true reading of what is happening in our minds, brains, and bodies as our actions are produced. The feeling of conscious will can be fooled.

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Nonpharmacologic treatment of migraine is often used by patients and can provide interesting options for physicians. Knowledge about the evidence and its absence is important. Avoidance of trigger factors can help, if individualized. Behavioral approaches, such as relaxation techniques, biofeedback, and cognitive-behavioral therapy, require far more specialist time or technical devices, but are supported by some evidence, which is mostly old. The same is true for hypnosis.

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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. Analysis of the data revealed that patients who completed the guided imagery program had a shorter average length of stay, a decrease in average direct pharmacy costs, and a decrease in average direct pain medication costs while maintaining high overall patient satisfaction with the care and treatment provided.

Guided imagery is now used as a standard, complementary therapy to help reduce anxiety, pain, and length of stay among the cardiac surgery patients at Inova Fairfax.