Does Hypnotherapy work?

Aradhya Sharma

With more than 300 million people affected by depression and 800 000 deaths due to suicide every year, it is important that clinicians continues to study different types of treatment programs that may be more effective, especially for patients that don’t find psychotherapy and anti-depressants helpful. One such alternative treatment that is understudied is hypnotherapy. Although there have been a few psychologists in the past that have promoted the use of hypnosis to facilitate therapy, its credibility has always been questioned by the scientific community, however, what if this alternative treatment actually has something to offer? 

Hypnosis, simply put, is a trance-like state of focus accompanied by the enhanced capacity to relax and respond to suggestions. The American Psychological Association describes hypnosis as a cooperative interaction in which the participant responds to the suggestions of the hypnotist (Cherry, 2019). Hypnosis is a very effective means of uncovering memories and improving the patient's ego strength. This is because being in a hypnotic state allows people to explore painful thoughts, feelings, and memories they might have hidden from their conscious minds. Also, under hypnosis, it seems that people are much more open to helpful suggestions than they usually aren’t open to. “While many people won’t accept or respond to an up-front, direct suggestion, under hypnosis, suggestions seem to get into the mind—perhaps through the “back door” of consciousness where they often germinate and take root as important behavioural or psychological changes” (Lazardus, 2013). The combination of these two allows clinicians to understand underlying problems or triggers and speed up the process of getting their suggestions accepted. 

An even more interesting thing about hypnosis is that it may have the capability of modifying suicidal impulses. This was first talked about by James R. Hodge, who used hypnosis to described suggestions to his patients so that they avoid suicide. This process involved giving direct suggestions to enter a trance and contact the therapist in response to any suicidal thoughts. This was tested on five different patients that all had suicidal tendencies and it was found that this method had succeeded in deterring suicide attempts at least temporarily hence providing a safeguard at least until the patient's treatment was not yet completed (Hodge, 1972). 

Another trend among clinicians is the integration of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with hypnosis in the management of depression. According to researcher Assen Alladin, CBT and hypnosis both have their own advantages and disadvantages and the way to compensate for both their shortcomings is by integrating the two techniques. For example, CBT does not permit access to unconscious restructuring, while hypnotherapy could provide that. He studied the effectiveness of CBT with hypnotherapy, also known as cognitive hypnotherapy (CH), as compared to just CBT by using the two methods on over 84 patients and compared their recovery after 16 weeks of treatment. At the end of the research, it was found that although both cognitive hypnotherapy and CBT significantly reduced depressive symptoms in patients, hypnotherapy had an additive effect - the CH group produced significantly larger changes in the Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Hopelessness Scale (Alladin, 2006). 

Overall, hypnosis does seem to have potential in treating depression and suicide, however, there are many contentions clinicians have with using it as a means of therapy. This is due to the many contradictory studies that have found that hypnosis does not help with treating any mental illness at all. For example, although on one hand it has been found that hypnotherapy can help to deter suicide, it has also been found that suicide risk becomes higher after hypnosis. According to Burrows (1980), hypnosis may relieve anxiety before depression has significantly lifted, giving the individual sufficient energy and anxiety reductions to follow suicidal impulses. A major concern with Hypnotherapy is also that most studies conducted on the topic were done between the 1980s and 1990s, and even then the number of studies conducted is not enough. There are very few recent studies that look into this area of treatment and confirm previous findings. Added to the number of studies that have found contradictory results, this prevents hypnosis from being considered a serious method of treatment. Right now, hypnotherapy seems very promising  - it may be able to transform the way we treat patients in the future, it may provide a way of preventing suicides and make current treatment processes much more effective and efficient. However, before that, it is crucial to research hypnotherapy more in-depth to prove or disprove previous findings and fully understand and confirm the benefits hypnotherapy could offer to treating depression. 

References: 

Alladin, A., & Alibhai, A. (2007). Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Depression:An

Empirical Investigation. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis

55(2), 147–166. doi: 10.1080/00207140601177897

Cherry, K. (2019, July 15). 5 Myths About Hypnosis Debunked. Retrieved October 24, 2019, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-hypnosis-2795921.

Hodge, J. R. (1972). Hypnosis as a Deterrent to Suicide. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 15(1), 20–24. doi: 10.1080/00029157.1972.10402205

Lazarus, C. N. (2013, January 29). The Truth About Hypnosis. Retrieved October 24, 2019, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/201301/the-truth-about-hypnosis.