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Intl. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 55, No. 3, Apr 2007: pp. 0–0
I
EFFECTIVENESS OF HYPNOTHERAPY WITH
CANCER PATIENTS’ TRAJECTORY:
Emesis, Acute Pain, and Analgesia and Anxiolysis
in Procedures
Effectiveness of Hypnotherapy With Cancer Patients
SYLVAIN NÉRON AND RANDOLPH STEPHENSON
S
YLVAIN
N
ÉRON AND
R
ANDOLPH
S
TEPHENSON
1
Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Abstract:
Clinical hypnosis in cancer settings provides symptom
reduction (pain and anxiety) and empowers patients to take an active
role in their treatments and procedures. The goal of this paper is to
systematically and critically review evidence on the effectiveness of
hypnotherapy for emesis, analgesia, and anxiolysis in acute pain, spe-
cifically in procedures with an emphasis on the period from 1999 to
2006. Further, it aims to provide a theoretical rationale for the use of
hypnosis with cancer populations in the whole spectrum of illness/
treatment trajectory in several clinical contexts. Finally, a treatment
protocol for management of overt anxiety and phobic reactions in the
radiotherapy suite is presented, with the intent of having such a pro-
tocol empirically validated in the future.
Much has emerged since the benchmark papers published in the
special edition of the
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental
Hypnosis
in 2000 featuring, “The Status of Hypnosis as an Empirically
Validated Clinical Intervention” (Nash, 2000). Empirically supported
therapy (Chambless & Ollendick, 2001) has become a trend in the field
of psychotherapy, and if hypnosis is to be regarded as evidence-based
therapy then it needs to adhere to the standards of efficacy (Nash,
2000). Authors recommend psychosocial oncology to establish its
interventions as empirically validated in order to maintain its status
(Ellwood, Carlson, & Bultz, 2001). To improve research, Lynn, Kirsch,
and Koby (2000) suggest defining the population, assessing partici-
pants’ hypnotizability, and describing the treatment protocol so that
future researchers can replicate the study.
Amundson, Alladin, and Gill (2003) argued that such efficacy-based
criteria might be “too narrow in its emphasis” (p. 11). The authors
describe how research in clinical hypnosis, in addition to being
evidence-based, must put an emphasis on effectiveness factors—in
other words, on how therapy is practiced in different settings and clinical
Manuscript submitted February 14, 2006; final revision accepted August 26, 2006.
1
Address correspondence to Sylvain Néron, Ph.D., SMBD, Jewish General Hospital, 3755
Cote Ste-Catherine Road, Montréal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada. E-mail: sylvain.neron@mcgill.ca
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