When they hear the word hypnosis, arthritis patients might think of a nightclub hypnotist in a worn tux making audience volunteers act like roosting chickens. As a result, many see hypnosis as contrived entertainment. But hypnosis is not hocus pocus, say health professionals who use it as a tool to treat pain of all kinds from arthritis to dental procedures.
Joseph Barber, PhD, a clinical professor of anesthesiology and rehabilitation at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, uses hypnosis to treat arthritis pain. One patient, a 73-year-old grandmother with severe pain from knee osteoarthritis, couldn’t tolerate anti-inflammatory drugs.
With just three hypnosis treatments – an unusually fast response – the pain in her knee decreased and she was able to return to normal daily activity. An analysis of 18 studies of hypnosis and pain in more than 900 people conducted by researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York bears out this grandmother’s experience, showing substantial pain relief in 75 percent of participants.
