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KRISTIN D. HUDACEK
becoming overeactive; only when an individual is stressed does the
immune system become dysregulated, which may be reversed by
hypnosis. However, one might argue that most people face stress on a
daily basis, and thus their immune system is constantly dysregulated
by a negative emotional state. In fact, as reported earlier, in a trial of
65 healthy participants exposed to either hypnosis, relaxation, or con-
trol conditions, high hypnotizable subjects undergoing hypnosis
showed significant elevations in B cells and CD4
+
T cells (Smith et al.,
1995).
The degree to which hypnosis can affect the immune system of nor-
mal subjects therefore warrants further research. In order to determine
if hypnosis could be used as a preventative measure in cancer (or any
disease for that matter), a prospective randomized trial would be the
optimal study design. Participants should be assessed for hypnotiz-
ability and could be followed for psychological well-being and
immune-cell counts, as well as hard clinical endpoints like breast can-
cer, recurrence rates, and death. Because such an experiment would
require many patients and a long follow-up, it may be more cost effec-
tive to retrospectively study the cancer rates in people who perform
other meditative therapies, such as yoga or Buddhist practices.
C
ONCLUSION
Although a recommendation about the use of hypnosis as adjuvant
therapy in the treatment of breast cancer cannot be made because the
clinical relevance of its immunological effects is unknown, psychologi-
cal intervention can only serve to help patients. By strengthening the
mind-body connection, hypnosis has been shown to enhance mood
and to increase NK cell levels in patients with early stage breast cancer,
while psychosocial intervention and elevated levels of cytotoxic T cells
have independently been linked to improved survival in metastatic
breast cancer patients. Further studies are needed to investigate the
effects of hypnosis on the immune system and survival time simulta-
neously to understand the mechanism of psychological treatment and
to determine its role in clinical medicine.
R
EFERENCES
Bakke, A. C., Purtzer, M. Z., & Newton, P. (2002). The effect of hypnotic-guided imagery
on psychological well-being and immune function in patients with prior breast can-
cer.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53,
1131–1137.
Barabasz, A., & Barabasz, M. (1992). Research design considerations. In E. Fromm & M.
Nash (Eds.),
Contemporary Hypnosis Research
(pp. 173–200). New York: Guilford.
Barabasz, A., & Watkins, J. (2005).
Hypnotherapeutic techniques
. New York: Brunner.
Black, S., Humphrey, J. H., & Niven, J. S. (1963). Inhibition of the Mantoux reaction by
direct suggestion under hypnosis.
British Medical
Journal, 1,
1649–1652.
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