A Book Review by Tim Brunson DCH

I clearly remember my college psychology professors introducing me to the "nature versus nurture" dilemma. Can experience alter the essential traits of human beings? Are we doomed to the limits of our genetics (as Watson and Crick's "Central Dogma" would have us believe)? Newsweek's science editor Sharon Begley's book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves dares to take a look this controversy from two very interesting perspectives. Inspired by the annual Mind & Life Institute meetings between His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, other senior Buddhist monks, and top Western neurologists, philosophers, and psychologists, this book's central theme is that the human mind can change. And, it postulates that once changed, the mind can change the biological organ we know as the human brain.

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Dr. Manceaux completed his undergraduate sutdies at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. He was accepted into the LSU Medical Center School of Physical Therapy. He graduated magna cum laude in 1984 from the Logan College of Chiropractic. He is the only practicing physical therapist and certified chiropractic sports physician in Louisiana. He served on the 1992 US Olypmic Trials, 1993 and 2001 NCAA Track & Feield Championship Medical Teams. He regularly treats many area high school and collegiate athletes. He has taught seminars in over 40 states on subjects of physical therapy, sports injuries, and risk management.

For more information visit: Road2Wellness.com.

Three articles of special interest to the hypnosis community recently appeared in the general scientific and medical literatures. The first paper is a thoughtful review of the clinical applications of hypnosis in pediatric settings. The second article reports the findings of a randomized, controlled trial of hypnosis for burn-wound care, carried out at the University of Washington Medical School. The third article describes an innovative EEG laboratory case study tracking the cortex functional connectivity of a highly hypnotizable subject across various baseline and experimental conditions. These three articles are sturdy examples of how hypnosis illuminates (and is illuminated by) medical and psychological science.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2008 Oct;56(4):463-9. Nash MR, Levy JJ, Tasso A, Perez N. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0900, USA. mnash@utk.edu

RATIONALE: Imaginative suggestibility, a trait closely related to hypnotic suggestibility, is modifiable under some circumstances. Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is commonly used for sedation in dentistry and is reported to be more effective when combined with appropriate suggestions. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether nitrous oxide inhalation alters imaginative suggestibility and imagery vividness. METHODS: Thirty participants were tested twice in a within-subjects design, once during inhalation of 25% nitrous oxide and once during inhalation of air plus oxygen. Before the study, participants' expectancies regarding the effects of nitrous oxide were assessed. Participants were blinded to drug administration. During each session, participants were verbally administered detailed measures of imagination and suggestibility: the Sheehan-Betts Quality of Mental Imagery scale and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Form C, minus the hypnotic induction. RESULTS: Imaginative suggestibility and imaginative ability (imagery vividness) were both elevated in the nitrous oxide condition. This effect was unrelated to participants' expectations regarding the effects of the drug. CONCLUSIONS: Nitrous oxide increased imaginative suggestibility and imaginative ability. Possible explanations of these findings are discussed with respect to the effects of N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonists and to other pharmacological effects upon suggestibility and imagination.

Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2008 Dec 5. Whalley MG, Brooks GB. Hypnosis Unit, Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK, matwhalley@gmail.com.

The manual muscle test (MMT) has been offered as a chiropractic assessment tool that may help diagnose neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction. We contend that due to the number of manipulative practitioners using this test as part of the assessment of patients, clinical guidelines for the MMT are required to heighten the accuracy in the use of this tool. OBJECTIVE: To present essential operational definitions of the MMT for chiropractors and other clinicians that should improve the reliability of the MMT as a diagnostic test. Controversy about the usefulness and reliability of the MMT for chiropractic diagnosis is ongoing, and clinical guidelines about the MMT are needed to resolve confusion regarding the MMT as used in clinical practice as well as the evaluation of experimental evidence concerning its use. DISCUSSION: We expect that the resistance to accept the MMT as a reliable and valid diagnostic tool will continue within some portions of the manipulative professions if clinical guidelines for the use of MMT methods are not established and accepted. Unreliable assessments of this method of diagnosis will continue when non-standard MMT research papers are considered representative of the methods used by properly trained clinicians. CONCLUSION: Practitioners who employ the MMT should use these clinical guidelines for improving their use of the MMT in their assessments of muscle dysfunction in patients with musculoskeletal pain.

Chiropr Osteopat. 2008 Dec 19;16(1):16. Schmitt WH Jr, Cuthbert SC.