Pain and anxiety are closely associated with bone marrow aspirates and biopsies. To determine whether hypnosis administered concurrently with the procedure can ameliorate these morbidities, the authors randomly assigned 80 cancer patients undergoing bone marrow aspirates and biopsies to either hypnosis or standard of care. The hypnosis intervention reduced the anxiety associated with procedure, but the difference in pain scores between the two groups was not statistically significant. The authors conclude that brief hypnosis concurrently administered reduces patient anxiety during bone marrow aspirates and biopsies but may not adequately control pain. The authors explain this latter finding as indicating that the sensory component of a patient's pain experience may be of lesser importance than the affective component. The authors describe future studies to clarify their results and address the limitations of this study.

Objective Cognitive problems are commonly reported by hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) survivors, and are associated with poorer physical and mental well-being. It was hypothesized that adverse effects of subjective cognitive impairment occur because cognitive difficulties reduce survivors’ confidence that they can manage HSCT-related symptoms—that is, self-efficacy for symptom management. Methods HSCT survivors (n = 245) 9-months to 3-years post-HSCT completed measures of subjective cognitive functioning, self-efficacy for symptom management, and clinically important outcomes: depressed mood, anxiety, and quality of life. Mediation analyses using bootstrapping were conducted to investigate whether effects of subjective cognitive impairment on these outcomes were mediated by self-efficacy for cognitive (SE-Cognitive), emotional (SE-Emotional), social (SE-Social), and physical (SE-Physical) symptom management. Results Self-efficacy mediated relations between subjective cognitive impairment and depressed mood (total indirect effect = −.0064 and 95% confidence interval [CI] −.0097 to −.0036), anxiety (total indirect effect = −.0045, CI −.0072 to −.0021), and quality of life (total indirect effect = .0952, CI .0901 to .2642). SE-Emotional was a unique mediator when the outcome was depressed mood and anxiety. SE-Social, SE-Physical and SE-Emotional were specific mediators when outcome was quality of life. Conclusions Findings support the conclusion that subjective cognitive impairment reduces HSCT survivors’ confidence in their ability to manage common post-HSCT symptoms, with implications for physical and mental well-being. Interventions that help enhance survivors’ self-efficacy are likely to benefit HSCT survivors who report subjective cognitive impairment.

Our findings provide insights to guide research on the mechanisms through which caregiver support influences patient outcomes after stem cell transplantation. For instance, research suggests that these kinds of effects could have implications for survivors' current self-concept, psychosocial functioning, and meaning-making.

This article will provide an examination of Erickson's model of hypnosis and the impact hypnosis has made on the psychosocial well being of the medically ill patient. The intrinsic three stage process of a hypnotic intervention, as well as its value, practice assumptions, and its relevance to alleviating pain, distress, and anxiety with oncology patients will be discussed. We have found this approach to be particularly effective with adult oncology patients at alleviating the side effects of the arduous treatment that is often endured. Case vignettes will demonstrate the benefits of utilizing this intervention with adult patients in the hospital setting as well as provide specific insight into the creative methods in which we have woven hypnosis into our clinical work. Finally, we will explore the use and rationale of hypnosis in medical settings and the impact of using this intervention on the role of the hospital social worker.

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