The development of studies on neuroimaging applied to hypnosis and to the study of pain not only helps to validate the existence of a hypnotic state but also to ratify its therapeutic effects. These studies also enable us to understand how hypnosis is effective on the cortical level. It also helps us see, from another perspective, the mechanisms of pain leading perhaps to a different definition of pain. This article develops the latest knowledge in the domain of hypnosis and pain, and approaches the clinical practices and their applications in the management of pain in children.

J Pain Symptom Manage. 2008 Feb 1 Wood C, Bioy A. Pain Unit (C.W.), Robert Debré Hospital, Paris; and Pain Unit (A.B.), Kremlin Bicêtre Hospital, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, and Laboratory of Psychopathology and Medical Psychology, Bourgogne University, Dijon, France.

The purpose of this study was to describe the use of hypnotic suggestion as a means of precipitating nonepileptic events in children while they are undergoing video electroencephalographic monitoring (VEEG) for differential diagnosis of seizurelike behavior. METHODS: Nine children aged 8-16 years were referred for VEEG to differentiate between epileptic seizures and nonepileptic events. All subjects underwent psychiatric consultation. Hypnosis was attempted in all subjects to try to provoke typical seizurelike events. RESULTS: In eight of nine patients, their typical seizurelike events were provoked by hypnosis. In all eight children, video and EEG analysis of the provoked events demonstrated them to be nonepileptic. No epileptiform abnormalities were present on interictal EEGs. No epileptic seizures occurred. CONCLUSION: Hypnosis is a useful and ethical means of provoking psychogenic nonepileptic events in children. Hypnotic suggestion should be considered as a provocative method when possibly psychogenic nonepileptic events have not occurred spontaneously during diagnostic evaluation.

Epilepsy Behav. 2008 Jan 11 Olson DM, Howard N, Shaw RJ. Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.