Portuguese norms for the Waterloo-Stanford Group C (WSGC) scale of hypnotic susceptibility are presented. A Portuguese translation of this scale was given to 625 Portuguese college students. Score distribution, item analysis, and reliability of the WSGC are presented and compared to three North American samples. The findings show that normative data from the Portuguese sample are congruent with the reference samples. The only significant difference obtained was a lower proportion of participants scoring within the high range of hypnotic suggestibility on the WSGC.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2008 Jul;56(3):295-305. Carvalho C, Kirsch I, Mazzoni G, Leal I. Higher Institute of Applied Psychology, Lisbon, Portugal. claudia.carvalho@ispa.pt

Carm has been in the field of hypnosis for over forty years. He was on the board of directors for the "National Hypnotic Research Center," taught Self Hypnosis in adult evening classes for twenty years in one School district and has now been teaching for four years in another continuing education program in another school district. He has currently been Chairman of the MidAmerica Hypnosis Conference for the past ten years. Carm does group presentations, private sessions, stage hypnosis, corporate sessions and various classes involving hypnosis. He has gratefully received acknowledgement from both the National Guild Of Hypnotists and the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has increased both by parents and health care providers. Despite scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of stimulants in the treatment of ADHD, the use of stimulants has received negative publicity and, for many parents, is worrisome. Concerns regarding adverse effects and the prospect of long-term use of pharmacologic treatments make many parents uncomfortable thus they seek "alternative treatments." With the information explosion produced by the Internet, marketing for alternative therapies such as herbal remedies, elimination diets, and food supplements for ADHD has increased. Many people use CAM because they are attracted to the CAM philosophies and health beliefs, dissatisfied with the process or results of conventional treatments, or concerned about adverse effects of stimulants.

Although some scientific evidence exists regarding some CAM therapies, for most there are key questions regarding safety and efficacy of these treatments in children. The aim of this article is to provide a general overview and focus on the evidence-based studies of CAM modalities that are commonly used for ADHD.

Adolesc Med State Art Rev. 2008 Aug;19(2):313-26, xi. Sawni A. Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 3901 Beaubien

Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48301, USA. asawni@med.wayne.edu

This study evaluated the benefits of add-on hypnotherapy in patients with chronic PTSD. Thirty-two PTSD patients treated by SSRI antidepressants and supportive psychotherapy were randomized to 2 groups: 15 patients in the first group received Zolpidem 10 mg nightly for 14 nights, and 17 patients in the hypnotherapy group were treated by symptom-oriented hypnotherapy, twice-a-week 1.5-hour sessions for 2 weeks. All patients completed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, Beck Depression Inventory, Impact of Event Scale, and Visual Subjective Sleep Quality Questionnaire before and after treatment. There was a significant main effect of the hypnotherapy treatment with PTSD symptoms as measured by the Posttraumatic Disorder Scale. This effect was preserved at follow-up 1 month later. Additional benefits for the hypnotherapy group were decreases in intrusion and avoidance reactions and improvement in all sleep variables assessed.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2008 Jul;56(3):270-80. Abramowitz EG, Barak Y, Ben-Avi I, Knobler HY. Israel Defense Forces, Mental Health Department, Israel. eitanmd@zahav.net.il

Dr. Aileen Gonzalez is a pharmacist native to Miami, Florida. She received her Pharm D degree at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida in 2001. Pharmacy was her chosen career in order to continue the family tradition, as her grandmother on the paternal side was a pharmacist in Cuba. However, as much as she is passionate about pharmacy, she still was not satisfied with the overuse of prescription medicines in the United States. From her retail pharmacy experience, she recognized how prescriptions are given to patients the majority of the time to mask symptoms without really finding out the real cause of an illness. She understands there are many chronic diseases that require continuous prescription medicine, but in turn, there are a vast amount of acute and chronic illnesses that may be healed by finding the root of the illness along with taking the appropriate homeopathic remedies. During this time Dr. Aileen Gonzalez was introduced to Psychosomatic Energetics (PSE) in Vienna, Austria by Dr. Helge Richter. She started out taking the remedies after being tested by the Reba® Test Device, and a few months later was back in Austria to be trained for PSE by Dr. Richter. Soon afterwards, she had further training for PSE in Toronto, Canada, where she also found out she has the ability to detect Geopathic Stress.

For more information visit: www.PseMiami.com.

Research on memory conformity shows that collaborative remembering--typically in the form of discussion--can influence people's memories. One question that remains is whether it matters with whom we discuss our memories. To address this question we compared people's memories for an event after they discussed that event with either their romantic partner or a stranger. Pairs of subjects watched slightly different versions of a movie, and then discussed some details from the movie, but not others. Subjects were better at remembering non-discussed details than discussed details: when remembering discussed details they incorrectly reported information from their partner's version instead of their own. In addition, subjects who discussed the event with their romantic partner (rather than with a stranger) were even more likely to report false memories. We discuss our findings in relation to other research on memory conformity, social influences on false memories, and memory systems within romantic relationships.

Memory. 2008 Apr;16(3):262-73. French L, Garry M, Mori K. Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.

A Review by Tim Brunson DCH

Discover Your Learning Genius: Enhance Your Concentration, Memory, and Test-Taking Skills, is the new dual induction CD by Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. and Oscar Rodriguez, CHt. As I have previously reviewed Dr. Pearson's book The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You, Weight Reduction Program, I expected a first class production. I was not disappointed. Everything from the packaging to the production is definitely top notch.

[More]

Mark Babineaux is an attorney, IMDHA certified forensic hypnotist, peak performance coach and quantum focus© coach from Lafayette, Louisiana. He is Adjunct Professor-Alpha University, 2008-2009 President of the Louisiana Hypnotherapy Organization and is on the advisory boards of both the IMDHA and the IACT. He maintains ageneral civil law practice and a hypnosis practice which includes helping individuals and groups overcome destructive habits and fears, deal with pain and stress, and improve beneficial habits.

The study group included 21 patients with malignant melanoma stage II-IV, aged 25-67, and 25 patients, aged 28-68, (control) with stomach tumors stage I-IV. All patients received individually-tailored hypnosis. Our newly-developed methods used batteries of suggestive images to deal with non-psychotic disorders and to map out strategies to support immunocompromised patients. In group 1, suggestion stimulated the "devouring" effect of the "patroling" cells. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of immunocompetent cells of peripheral blood were assessed by flow cytometry, immuno-enzymatic analysis and other procedures to evaluate immunological status. Correlation analysis of data on group 1 identified 7 negative coefficients (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01) exactly in the monocytic macrophageal link thus suggesting the modulating effect of hypnosis. Our results support evidence available on the potential of hypnosis for cancer patient immunity and point for the first time to feasibility of differentiated targeting specific of the immune system.

Vopr Onkol. 2007;53(6):699-703. Bukhtoiarov OV, Kozhevnikov VS, Samarin DM, Solov'ëva IG, Pronkina NV, Shishikova IV, Kozlov VA.

A psychotropic placebo can help people resist the misinformation effect, an effect thought to be caused by a shift to more stringent source monitoring. When this shift occurs has been unclear. To address this issue we gave some people - but not others - a phoney cognitive-enhancing drug we called R273. Shortly afterwards, everyone took part in a misinformation effect experiment. To gather evidence about source monitoring we surreptitiously recorded time to read the misleading postevent narrative, and response time at test. Our findings suggest that people shifted to more stringent source monitoring at test. Moreover, people with higher working memory capacity (WMC) performed better than people with lower WMC - but only when they were told they had received R273, a finding that fits with research showing that WMC can confer advantages in situations demanding effortful control, but not when automatic heuristics suffice.

Memory. 2008 May;16(4):410-9. Parker S, Garry M, Engle RW, Harper DN, Clifasefi SL. School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.

The chiropractic profession has succeeded to remain in existence for over 110 years despite the fact that many other professions which had their start at around the same time as chiropractic have disappeared. Despite chiropractic's longevity, the profession has not succeeded in establishing cultural authority and respect within mainstream society, and its market share is dwindling. In the meantime, the podiatric medical profession, during approximately the same time period, has been far more successful in developing itself into a respected profession that is well integrated into mainstream health care and society. OBJECTIVE: To present a perspective on the current state of the chiropractic profession and to make recommendations as to how the profession can look to the podiatric medical profession as a model for how a non-allopathic healthcare profession can establish mainstream integration and cultural authority. DISCUSSION: There are several key areas in which the podiatric medical profession has succeeded and in which the chiropractic profession has not. The authors contend that it is in these key areas that changes must be made in order for our profession to overcome its shrinking market share and its present low status amongst healthcare professions. These areas include public health, education, identity and professionalism. CONCLUSION: The chiropractic profession has great promise in terms of its potential contribution to society and the potential for its members to realize the benefits that come from being involved in a mainstream, respected and highly utilized professional group. However, there are several changes that must be made within the profession if it is going to fulfill this promise. Several lessons can be learned from the podiatric medical profession in this effort.

Chiropr Osteopat. 2008 Aug 29;16:10. Murphy DR, Schneider MJ, Seaman DR, Perle SM, Nelson CF. Rhode Island Spine Center Pawtucket, RI, USA. rispine@aol.com.

For 30 years hundreds of researchers have shown participants videos and slide-sequences of events, presented the participants with misleading information, and found that this misinformation distorted their memories. The purpose of this study was to establish whether those misled participants are reporting a memory blend of the two sources of information or whether they are simply complying with the post-event information. A total of 92 participants were shown one of two versions of six different videos, which included some subtle differences. After having watched each video individually, participants were paired with someone who had seen the other version and they discussed the clips together. They then individually answered questions about the videos, and their responses showed that some of the distorted memories were blends of the original information and the post-event information. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Memory. 2008 May;16(4):436-42. Skagerberg EM, Wright DB. Psychology Department, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. elins@sussex.ac.uk

WEBWIRE – Thursday, March 19, 2009 Something strange is going on in the amygdala -- an almond-shaped structure deep in the human brain -- among people with autism.

Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered an increased pattern of brain activity in the amygdalas of adults with autism that may be linked to the social deficits that typically are associated with the disorder. Previous research at the UW and elsewhere has shown that abnormal growth patterns in the amygdala are commonly found among young children diagnosed with autism.

[More]

Integrative medicine has been defined in several ways. For some it is a discipline that combines such approaches to the resolution of disease as acupuncture and homeopathy, meditation and imagery with more familiar and accepted health practices, such as surgery, pediatrics, and oncology. For others it is about cultivating awareness and sensitivity beyond symptoms to the mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the patient. But, integrative medicine is more than the weaving together of techniques, or understanding the intimate interaction of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of human experience. It is about rethinking the task of medicine and the infrastructure of relationships and beliefs that have limited its power to serve all people.

Hematol Oncol Clin North Am. 2008 Aug;22(4):767-73, x. Remen RN. Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal, Box 316, Bolinas, CA 94924, USA. drrachel@commonweal.org

Three experiments explored a jumbled word effect in false recognition. Lists of theme-related items were presented in word or nonword form. Results indicated that critical lures semantically related to studied items were falsely recognised regardless of whether they were presented as words or nonwords. High false recognition rates to either SLEEP or SELEP following study of an appropriate theme list of items in nonword form should only occur if nonwords are recoded at study. With study conditions conducive to recoding, jumbled words induced false recognitions based on semantic associations among their respective base words. Disrupting a recoding process by creating "difficult" letter rearrangements for jumbled words (Experiment 2) appeared to eliminate the false recognition effect. In Experiment 3, presentation durations ranged from 110 ms to 880 ms. Although there was little evidence of a semantic false recognition effect at the fastest presentation rate, the brief durations appeared to be effective in eliminating the effect when items were studied in nonword form. These results appear to be consistent with an encoding activation/retrieval monitoring model.

Memory. 2008 May;16(4):443-61. Halcomb SH, Taylor JP, DeSouza KD, Wallace WP. Department of Psychology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA. sara.haber@rice.edu

This paper integrates some Buddhist moral values, attitudes and self-cultivation techniques into a discussion of the ethics of cognitive enhancement technologies - in particular, pharmaceutical enhancements. Many Buddhists utilize meditation techniques that are both integral to their practice and are believed to enhance the cognitive and affective states of experienced practitioners.

[More]

We investigated the influence of preparation provided by parents on preschoolers' recall. One day before children participated in a staged novel event, parents discussed the event with their child either with (verbal+photos) or without (verbal) photographs. Parents and children in a control condition read an unrelated story. Then 8-10 days later the children were interviewed about the event. Children in the verbal+photos condition recalled significantly more than those in the control condition. Parental preparation style (e.g., evaluations, hypothetical language) was associated with the child's contributions to the preparatory discussion, but no aspect of parent or child style or content was associated with children's verbal recall. Similarly, there were no significant associations between children's performance on a task of episodic future thinking, and their preparatory discussion or recall, although episodic future thinking was strongly associated with language ability. The potential underlying mechanisms and theoretical implications are discussed.

Memory. 2008;16(5):485-99. Salmon K, Champion F, Pipe ME, Mewton L, McDonald S. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Karen.Salmon@vuw.ac.nz

Our purpose was to review the biomedical literature from January 2004 to June 2007 inclusive to determine the extent of new evidence related to the therapeutic application of manipulation for pediatric health conditions. This updates a previous systematic review published in 2005. No critical appraisal of the evidence is undertaken. DATA SOURCES: We searched both the indexed and non-indexed biomedical manual therapy literature. This included PubMed, MANTIS, CINAHL, ICL, as well as reference tracking. Other resources included the Cochrane Library, CCOHTA, PEDro, WHO ICTRP, AMED, EMBASE and AHRQ databases, as well as research conferences and symposium proceedings. RESULTS: The search identified 1275 citations of which 57 discrete citations met the eligibility criteria determined by three reviewers who then determined by consensus, each citation's appropriate level on the strength of evidence scale. The new evidence from the relevant time period was 1 systematic review, 1 RCT, 2 observational studies, 36 descriptive case studies and 17 conference abstracts. When this additional evidence is combined with the previous systematic review undertaken up to 2003, there are now in total, 2 systematic reviews, 10 RCT's, 3 observational studies, 177 descriptive studies, and 31 conference abstracts defining this body of knowledge. SUMMARY: There has been no substantive shift in this body of knowledge during the past 3 1/2 years. The health claims made by chiropractors with respect to the application of manipulation as a health care intervention for pediatric health conditions continue to be supported by only low levels of scientific evidence. Chiropractors continue to treat a wide variety of pediatric health conditions. The evidence rests primarily with clinical experience, descriptive case studies and very few observational and experimental studies. The health interests of pediatric patients would be advanced if more rigorous scientific inquiry was undertaken to examine the value of manipulative therapy in the treatment of pediatric conditions.

Chiropr Osteopat. 2008 Sep 12;16:11. Gotlib A, Rupert R. Canadian Chiropractic Association, CMCC Homewood Professor, 30 St, Patrick St, Suite 600, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 3A3, Canada. algotlib@ccachiro.org.

Many people believe that emotional memories (including those that arise in therapy) are particularly likely to represent true events because of their emotional content. But is emotional content a reliable indicator of memory accuracy? The current research assessed the emotional content of participants' pre-existing (true) and manipulated (false) memories for childhood events. False memories for one of three emotional childhood events were planted using a suggestive manipulation and then compared, along several subjective dimensions, with other participants' true memories. On most emotional dimensions (e.g., how emotional was this event for you?), true and false memories were indistinguishable. On a few measures (e.g., intensity of feelings at the time of the event), true memories were more emotional than false memories in the aggregate, yet true and false memories were equally likely to be rated as uniformly emotional. These results suggest that even substantial emotional content may not reliably indicate memory accuracy.

Memory. 2008;16(5):500-16. Laney C, Loftus EF. University of Leicester, UK. cl136@le.ac.uk

Associate Professor and Director of Studies at the Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark. He also serves as an expert advisor on chiropractic to the National Board of Health in Denmark. Dr. Nilsson has published many important and influential studies on the efficacy of chiropractic and, as a result, was FCER's Researcher of the Year in 2000.

Standard treatment for IBS focuses on the management or alleviation of the predominant gastrointestinal presenting symptoms, such as diarrhea or constipation, often using pharmacological therapy. For many patients, this approach is unsatisfactory, and patients frequently seek the advice of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners in order to explore other treatment options.

[More]

Information about stressful life experiences obtained from patients during diagnostic interviews is an important foundation for clinical decision making. In this study self-reports from 115 committed psychiatric patients of experiences of mechanical restraint were compared with medical records. The sensitivity of patient self-reports was 73% (11/15) and the specificity was 92% (92/100). No clear relationship between psychiatric symptoms and reliability of self-reports was identified. The results highlight the subjective qualities of narratives about past experiences.

Memory. 2008;16(5):548-55. Wallsten T, Kjellin L, Sjoberg RL. University of Uppsala, Vasterås, Sweden. tuula.wallsten@ltv.se

Richard Bandler is one of the co-developers of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a term which he invented. While he was a student of the University of California, Santa Cruz, he led a Gestalt therapy group, John Grinder, the other NLP co-developer, visited Bandler's group. Together they developed a model for therapy based upon transformational grammer. This model was called the meta-model. NLP was influenced by the work of Gregory Bateson, Virginia Satir, and Milton H. Erickson.

For more information visit: www.RichardBandler.com.

Transcendental Meditation is a mental practice to put the body and mind into a state of relaxation and rest. The method was shown to reduce anxiety and stress in previous reports. This study investigates its potential benefits in enhancing mental health of an adult Muslim population. METHODS: A before-after clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of a 12-week meditation course on mental health of participants who were enrolled into the study by random sampling. 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was administered on two occasions in conjunction with a background data sheet.

[More]

Annette Bergstein is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Stress Management Consultant. She is member of the American Board of Hypnotherapy,Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Association, International Hypnosis Federation, National Guild of Hypnotists and International Association of Counselors and Therapists. She welcomes any questions you may have regarding hypnosis. She can be reached by email at QuestHypnosis4U@aol.com or at www.questhypnotherapy.com. Private hypnotherapy sessions are always recommended however, CDs are available for you to experience in the privacy of your own home.

"My 15 year experience in Human Resources was my impetus to help people beyond traditional therapy. I believe that every individual has the potential for success in every aspect of their lives. Emotional balance is the key to achieving your personal and professional goals. Through hypnosis, individuals learn how to recognize and change beliefs and emotions that may be limiting them. My focus is to assist you to realize the power of your subconscious mind so you can achieve the positive changes you desire. It's an honor for me to be a part of someone's journey towards achieving their full potential."

FOr more information visit: www.QuestHypnotherapy.com

Despite a large body of false memory research, little has addressed the potential influence of an event's emotional content on susceptibility to false recollections. The Paradoxical Negative Emotion (PNE) hypothesis predicts that negative emotion generally facilitates memory but also heightens susceptibility to false memories. Participants were asked whether they could recall 20 "widely publicised" public events (half fictitious) ranging in emotional valence, with or without visual cues. Participants recalled a greater number of true negative events (M=3.31/5) than true positive (M=2.61/5) events. Nearly everyone (95%) came to recall at least one false event (M=2.15 false events recalled). Further, more than twice as many participants recalled any false negative (90%) compared to false positive (41.7%) events. Negative events, in general, were associated with more detailed memories and false negative event memories were more detailed than false positive event memories. Higher dissociation scores were associated with false recollections of negative events, specifically.

Memory. 2008;16(6):658-66. Porter S, Taylor K, Ten Brinke L. Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. sbporter@dal.ca

Patient satisfaction is important to payers, clinicians, and patients. The concept of satisfaction is multifactorial and measurement is challenging. Our objective was to explore the use of a mixed-methods design to examine patient satisfaction with chiropractic care for low back pain.

METHODS: Patients were treated 3 times per week for 3 weeks. Outcomes were collected at week 3 and week 4. Qualitative interviews were conducted by the treating clinician and a nontreating staff member. Outcome measures were the Roland Morris Back Pain Disability Questionnaire, the visual analog scale for pain, and the Patient Satisfaction Scale. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and analyzed for themes and constructs of satisfaction. We compared qualitative interview data with quantitative outcomes, and qualitative data from 2 different interviewers.

RESULTS: All patients reported high levels of satisfaction. Clinical outcomes were unremarkable with little change noted on visual analog scale and Roland Morris Back Pain Disability Questionnaire scores. We categorized patient comments into the same constructs of satisfaction as those identified for the Patient Satisfaction Scale: Information, Effectiveness, and Caring. An additional construct (Quality of Care) and additional subcategories were identified. Satisfaction with care is not explained by outcome alone. The qualitative data collected from 2 different interviewers had few differences.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that it is feasible to use a mixed-methods design to examine patient satisfaction. We were able to refine data collection and analysis procedures for the outcome measures and qualitative interview data. We identified limitations and offer recommendations for the next step: the implementation of a larger study.

J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2008 Oct;31(8):602-10. Rowell RM, Polipnick J. Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa 52803, USA. robert.rowell@palmer.edu

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are highly subject-specific and vary considerably even between recording sessions of the same user within the same experimental paradigm. This challenges a stable operation of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems. The classical approach is to train users by neurofeedback to produce fixed stereotypical patterns of brain activity. In the machine learning approach, a widely adapted method for dealing with those variances is to record a so called calibration measurement on the beginning of each session in order to optimize spatial filters and classifiers specifically for each subject and each day. This adaptation of the system to the individual brain signature of each user relieves from the need of extensive user training. In this paper we suggest a new method that overcomes the requirement of these time-consuming calibration recordings for long-term BCI users. The method takes advantage of knowledge collected in previous sessions: By a novel technique, prototypical spatial filters are determined which have better generalization properties compared to single-session filters. In particular, they can be used in follow-up sessions without the need to recalibrate the system. This way the calibration periods can be dramatically shortened or even completely omitted for these 'experienced' BCI users. The feasibility of our novel approach is demonstrated with a series of online BCI experiments. Although performed without any calibration measurement at all, no loss of classification performance was observed.

PLoS ONE. 2008 Aug 13;3(8):e2967. Krauledat M, Tangermann M, Blankertz B, Müller KR. Machine Learning Laboratory, Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin, Germany. kraulem@cs.tu-berlin.de

Prior research on false memories has shown that suggestibility is often reduced when the presentation rate is slowed enough to allow monitoring. We examined whether slowing presentation speed would reduce factual errors learned from fictional stories. Would subjects use the extra time to detect the errors in the stories, reducing reproduction of these errors on a later test? Surprisingly, slowing presentation speed increased the production of story errors on a later general knowledge test. Instructing the reader to mark whether each sentence contained an error, however, did decrease suggestibility. Readers appear to passively accept information presented in stories and need a constant reminder to monitor for errors. These results highlight differences between typical episodic false memories and illusions of knowledge (such as learning from fiction). Manipulations that reduce suggestibility for episodic false memories do not always reduce suggestibility for illusions of knowledge.

Psychon Bull Rev. 2008 Feb;15(1):180-5. Fazio LK, Marsh EJ. Department of Psychology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0086, USA. lkf@duke.edu

Do false beliefs last? To explore this question, this study planted false beliefs or memories of a childhood experience with asparagus. We found that these false beliefs had consequences for subjects, when assessed directly after the suggestive manipulation. Moreover, subjects were brought back two weeks later to see if their false beliefs persisted. After two weeks, subjects' confidence in their new memories, and the consequences of those memories were diminished, but not extinguished. These false beliefs were found to be somewhat weaker than other subjects' true beliefs for the same events. Another novel finding was that the manipulation was sufficiently powerful to affect actual food choices.

Acta Psychol (Amst). 2008 Sep;129(1):190-7. Laney C, Fowler NB, Nelson KJ, Bernstein DM, Loftus EF. University of California-Irvine, CA, USA. CL136@le.ac.uk

Jan Schloten is a well known homeopathic doctor. He has been promoting homeopathy in many ways over 20 wears. He founded the homeopathic clinic Homespatishc Arsencentrum Utrecht, which has 10 doctors practicing homeopathy. He founded Stichting Alonnissos, a foundation promoting homepathy through the publication of books, organizing seminars, and promoting research. Dr. Schloten speaks regularly at conferences in the US, Canada, and Europe.

For more information visit: www.JanScholten.com.

Novel advances in biotechnology and medical imaging techniques have enabled an evolution toward earlier diagnosis and treatment by way of "minimally invasive" surgical techniques performed on the conscious patient without the use of general anesthesia. Although the risks of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions have been reduced with these approaches, patients still face many physical and psychologic challenges. Several randomized controlled trials have shown that hypnotic techniques are effective in reducing pain, anxiety, and other symptoms; in reducing procedure time; and in stabilizing vital signs. The benefits of adjunctive hypnotic treatments come at no additional cost. Patients, health care providers, hospitals, and insurance companies are advised to take advantage of hypnotic techniques.

Hematol Oncol Clin North Am. 2008 Aug;22(4):709-25, ix. Flory N, Lang E. Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, One Deaconess Road, Boston, MA 02215, USA. nflory@bidmc.harvard.edu

Understanding how homeopaths make clinical decisions is important in terms of optimising patient care, yet currently little is understood about this process. Most current literature investigating decision-making has focussed on conventional medicine; to date only two studies, both quantitative, have explored this area, with both studies investigating this in homeopathy. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how homeopaths make prescribing decisions primarily during their first consultation with a patient.

[More]