The Effectiveness of Hypnosis for Fibromyalgia Pain
Today, the treatment of chronic pain syndromes such as FMS are clearly under studied and insufficient. With sincere respect to those who treat and pioneer studies for FMS in clinical practice, this writer believes that the traditional treatments for FMS are sadly lacking.
FMS is not a disease. It appears to be the manifestation of the brain giving signals and instructions to the physical body and creating intense pain with no explainable cause.
Just as an autoimmune disease signals the body to create antibodies, which are supposed to protect but often end up attacking the body, the author believes that FMS falls in this same category but is organized by specific messages/instructions from the brain. The body and the mind, in their infinite wisdom continually avert, divert, invent and mastermind the functions of our minds and bodies. It is not understood what triggers these signals. Some think it stems from physical or mental trauma; others site irregular hormones as being the culprit while others believe it to be an underlying virus. These are just a few of the theories. One thing the writer knows for sure is that hypnosis can and does alleviate much of the FMS pain regardless of the cause.
It has been clearly shown that suggestions during and following a hypnotic session can greatly decrease the severity of FMS pain. To discover this and related questions, suggestions following a hypnotic induction and the identical suggestions without a hypnotic induction were used during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The outcome showed that in both methods, pain was reduced. However, those who had been hypnotized reported substantially more pain relief than those who had not.
Knowing the importance of emotional stress in triggering many of these syndromes as well as the concept of neuronal plasticity, general treatment, which includes exhaustive cooperation on the patient’s side, a study was initiated through which valorásemos hypnosis and cognitive-behavioral techniques in patients with FMS were used. Nowadays the use of medication for the treatment of chronic pain syndromes such as FMS shows drastically insufficient results and often creates drug dependency.
The writer of this thesis sees and works with many clients suffering with fibromyalgia. In her experience, the vast majority of these clients are addicted or at least dependent on two to three narcotics at once. It is very sad to see the slow but powerful journey of the pain medications taking control.
Considering the relevance of emotional stress in the cause of many of these pain syndromes and also the concept of neuron plasticity, a study was developed to actually work closely with and collaborate with the patients instead of merely pumping more and more pain medications into them. In this study, it was possible for the study to evaluate-hypnosis as a cognitive behavioral technique in patients affected by FMS.