Jafarizadeh H, et al. – A comparative assessment was pursued of the effectiveness of hypnosis and ‘neutral hypnosis’ (as a placebo in the control group) in decreasing the background burn pain and pain anxiety, among adult male survivors with burns. The inference drawn was that hypnosis was effective in reducing background pain quality and pain anxiety of men with burns.

Methods

• The design of this research was a blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled study.
• The eligible candidates were 60 men with burns, included in the minimisation method (30 individuals in the intervention group and 30 individuals in the control group).
• Four hypnotherapy sessions were carried out every other day for each candidate in the intervention group.
• Four neutral hypnosis sessions were conducted every other day in the control group.
• An estimation was performed of the burn pain and pain anxiety of the patients in both groups, at the end of the second and fourth sessions.
• Repeated measures ANOVA was used for data analysis.

Results

• No prominent variation was noted between the groups in the reduction in background pain intensity.
• A notable reduction was reported in the background pain quality and pain anxiety in the intervention group during the four hypnosis sessions.
• After two hypnotherapy sessions, a marked reduction was noticed in the level of background pain quality and pain anxiety of enrollees.