Hypnosis (Pre-Surgery) speeds recovery for Breast Cancer victims

Women who are hypnotised before having surgery for breast cancer spend less time in the operating theate and recover better, researchers have found.

The study at the Mount Sinai Hospital in USA found a 15 minute session with a hypnotherapist had a significant impact on how well women coped with the surgery, their levels of pain afterwards and how ill they felt.

Women spent on average 10.6 minutes less in the operating theatre because they needed less sedation and their average score for pain, nausea, fatigue, discomfort and emotional well-being was better than women who had just had a chat with a psychologist.

The study was carried out on 200 women having minor breast surgery rather than having a full mastectomy.

The paper, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Insitute said: "The present brief hypnosis intervention appears to be one of the rare clinical interventions that can simultaneously reduce both symptom burden and costs.

Together, the combination of potential improvements in symptom burden for the hundreds of thousands of women facing breast cancer surgery each year and the economic benefit for institutions argues persuasively for the more widespread application of brief pre-surgical hypnosis".

According to the research, women who were hypnotised had an average pain intensity score of 22.4 compared with 47.8 who did not. The hypnotised women also had a nausea score of 6.5 compred with 25.4 for the control group. The average score for emotional upset was just 8.6 in the hypnotised women compared with 33.4 for those who were not.

Dr. David Spiegel of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California documented - "It has taken us a century and a half to rediscover the fact that the mind has something to do with pain and can be a powerful tool in controlling it. It is now abundantly clear that we can retrain the brain to reduce pain".

First published in The Daily Telegraph.

Note :-

This article proves that the the medical community is becoming more aware of the value of hypnosis and positive suggestions. It is to my mind just the beginning of an exciting future for clinical hypnosis and its practitioners! - Matthew Ferguson

Read more articles by Matthew Ferguson

Matthew Ferguson SQHP

(Clinical hypnotherapist, Trainer of Hypnotherapy and NLP, Stress Consultant and Authentic Happiness Coach) Matthew runs a training school in Scotland teaching Hypnotherapy, NLP and Coaching to learn more visit www.motivationtraining.co.uk If you are a Facebook user please click on our Follow us on Facebook button at www.motivationtraining.co.uk and click the like button. You will be kept up to date with the latest articles, information and free downloads.

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