Hypnosis May Reduce Pain After Breast Cancer Surgery

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A new study finds that the use of hypnosis prior to breast cancer surgery can reduce the amount of anesthesia needed for the operation, the amount of pain reported afterwards as well as the time and cost of the procedure.

Researchers from New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center say that just one 15 minute session one hour before surgery is all that’s needed.

Breast cancer surgery patients often suffer side effects such as pain, nausea, and fatigue during and after their operation. These complications can lengthen their hospital stay, lead to hospital readmission, or require additional medications�all of which increase medical costs. Several previous studies have suggested that hypnosis may reduce pain, recovery time, and the need for medications after surgery.

“Breast cancer patients are a population in need,” lead author Guy Montgomery, a clinical psychologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said Tuesday from New York. “They’re going through a lot both from a psychological perspective as well as a physical perspective from the surgery itself.”

“Our patients at discharge had less pain intensity, less pain unpleasantness, less nausea, less fatigue, less discomfort and they were less emotionally upset about the whole experience,” Montgomery said of those who were hypnotized.

Published online Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 200 women scheduled for surgical breast biopsy or lumpectomy were randomly assigned to have either a 15-minute session of hypnosis or a short period of empathic listening with a psychologist.

Researchers found that after surgery, the women who underwent the hypnosis session needed less anesthesia medication than women who did not receive hypnosis.

“This is a randomized clinical trial of 200 patients that really showed beneficial effects for patients,” said Guy Montgomery. “It really works well.” “We’re not going to make you cluck like a chicken or sing like Madonna,” he told patients. “Hypnosis is not mind control. It’s more like focused attention.”

In an accompanying editorial, David Spiegel, M.D., from Stanford University School of Medicine, says that the brain does have something to do with pain management and can be trained tocontrol it.

SOURCE: Journal of National Cancer Institute, published online on Aug. 28, 2007