This article is from the WebMD Medical News Archive

Dec. 17, 2002 -- Getting rid of chronic indigestion may be as easy as closing your eyes, relaxing, and imagining your symptoms going away. A new study shows hypnotherapy can ease the pain, nausea, and bloating caused by an upset stomach and help prevent future episodes.

Researchers found hypnotherapy provided both immediate and long-term relief to people with persistent indigestion and eliminated the need for anti-indigestion medications as long as a year after treatment.

The findings appear in the current issue of Gastroenterology.

Indigestion is an extremely common condition that causes discomfort after eating. According to researchers, the problem affects up to 25% of adults, and the few effective medications available for the condition are expensive.

Previous studies have shown that hypnotherapy can be effective in reducing the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and in this study researchers tested a similar technique for the first time in people with indigestion. The hypnotherapy consists of inducing hypnosis through eye fixation and closure followed by progressive muscle relaxation and guiding the patient through a series of imaginary and touch-based suggestions of disease improvement, such as placing a hand on their abdomen and imagining a reduction of symptoms.

For the study, researchers evaluated improvements in the quality of life and symptoms in the different treatment groups. Symptoms and quality of life were assessed using a scale. They compared hypnotherapy with both standard medical treatment using a commonly used drug (Zantac) and supportive therapy with a placebo among 126 patients with indigestion. After 16 weeks of treatment, symptoms scores were improved by 59% in the hypnotherapy group compared with 41% in the supportive group and 33% in the medication group.

A year later, the hypnotherapy showed an even greater improvement in symptoms (79%) compared with the supportive and medication groups (34% and 43%, respectively). The quality of life of the patients who used hypnotherapy also improved significantly more than those in the other groups.

But researcher Peter James Whorwell, of Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, U.K., and colleagues, say the most striking finding was that no one in the hypnotherapy group started taking anti-indigestion medications during the year-long follow up period after treatment. But 90% of those in the medication group and 82% of the patients in the supportive group did so.

Those in the hypnotherapy group also visited their general practitioners or gastroenterologist less often than the others.

In an editorial that accompanies the study, Olafur S. Palsson, PsyD, and William S. Whitehead, PhD, of the Center for Functional Gastrointestinal & Motility Disorders at the University of North Carolina say this and other recent studies show hypnosis warrants serious consideration as a secondary treatment for indigestion and irritable bowel syndrome.

But the editorialists say hypnotherapy has many stumbling blocks to overcome before it can become a widely used treatment for gastrointestinal (GI) problems. For example, few insurance companies cover the cost of hypnotherapy for GI disorders, and few specialists are trained to practice the techniques.

SOURCE: Gastroenterology, December 2002.

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