Long term benefits of hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome

Abstract

Background and aims: There is now good evidence from several sources that hypnotherapy can relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in the short term. However, there is no long term data on its benefits and this information is essential before the technique can be widely recommended. This study aimed to answer this question. Patients and methods: 204 patients prospectively completed questionnaires scoring symptoms, quality of life, anxiety, and depression before, immediately after, and up to six years following hypnotherapy. All subjects also subjectively assessed the effects of hypnotherapy retrospectively in order to define their ''responder status''. Results: 71% of patients initially responded to therapy. Of these, 81% maintained their improvement over time while the majority of the remaining 19% claimed that deterioration of symptoms had only been slight. With respect to symptom scores, all items at follow up were significantly improved on pre-hypnotherapy levels (p,0.001) and showed little change from post-hypnotherapy values. There were no significant differences in the symptom scores between patients assessed at 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5+ years following treatment. Quality of life and anxiety or depression scores were similarly still significantly improved at follow up (p,0.001) but did show some deterioration. Patients also reported a reduction in consultation rates and medication use following the completion of hypnotherapy. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the beneficial effects of hypnotherapy appear to last at least five years. Thus it is a viable therapeutic option for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.

Brief hypnotherapeutic–behavioral intervention for functional abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome in childhood: a randomized controlled trial

“…On the one hand, the high rate of treatment responders is remarkable since the majority of children suffered from long-standing AP. On the other hand, this is in line with previous research in adults, which has shown that HT is highly effective in the treatment of adult patients with severe IBS, who did not benefit from other treatments [18].…”

“…Derived from good evidence in treating adults with long-standing IBS with hypnotherapy (HT) [16,18,58], this might also be a promising approach in handling FAP and IBS in childhood [47][48][49]. The most comprehensive study in HT treatment of FAP and IBS in children and adolescents (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) years) by a Dutch workgroup [48,49] could demonstrate that HT was highly superior to standard medical care, even in a longterm follow-up. A study in the United States was able to show that self-administered audio-recorded HT for children and adolescents with FAP (6-15 years) was superior to a waiting list condition [47].…”

Psychological Interventions for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

“…Among the responders, 81% fully maintained improvement at follow-up 1 to 5 years later. Treatment responders used significantly less medication and had fewer health care visits [63]. Hypnosis improves not only the IBS symptom score, but also the IBS-related cognitions score and the total cognitive score, suggesting that symptom improvement in IBS with GDH is associated with cognitive change [64].…”

Hypnosis and upper digestive function and disease

“…This study, albeit small, was a landmark trial, demonstrating for the first time the substantial possibilities that hypnosis offers for ameliorating gastrointestinal symptoms. Since then, positive results on the efficacy of hypnotherapy as a treatment for IBS have been reported by independent investigators both in uncontrolled and controlled trials (Table 1) [18][19][20][21][22] . The Manchester group has created a Hypnotherapy Unit, where this mode of therapy is routinely offered to functional GI patients who do not gain satisfactory benefit from more conventional medical treatment [16] .…”