The Roles That Hypnosis Can Play in Seeking to Provide Pain Management - Term Paper Example

Section/# The Roles that Hypnosis Can Play in Seeking to Provide Pain Management Pain management itself has been afield that has exhibited a rapidly growing body of knowledge. Although a great deal of medical technology and understanding has been realized within the past few decades, fundamental shifts in treating pain and seeking to minimize the negative impacts that many pain management techniques afford has lagged behind the remainder of medical discovery. For this matter, seeking to find a way to lessen the pain of the individual undergoing treatment while all the while not exacerbating or creating any other medical condition or major side effect/complication is of primal importance. With such a directive in mind, it will be the purpose of this brief paper to explore some of the ways in which hypnotherapy can be useful in treating key aspects of pain management; both in terms of an intermediary step to lessen the pain or as a means to help acquaint the mind with helpful strategies for raising the threshold of tolerance. In such a way, the analysis will begin by attempting to define hypnotherapy and proceed to discuss the ways in which the practice of hypnotherapy is beneficial to the individual suffering from pain. As a means to accomplish such a task, a variety of medical journals and sources will be utilized so that a thorough and thoughtful analysis can be drawn as to overall efficacy of the practice within the context of medical treatment. The definition of hypnotherapy is of course itself a necessary step in seeking to understand what specifically the practice entails and what it does not. Due to the fact that a great deal of societal misconception continues to exist surround the use and application of hypnotherapy, there remains a great deal of unnecessary and ill-conceived biases with regards to its implementation. For purposes of the medical community, hypnotherapy can simply be defined as, “the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic technique”. Due to the simplistic nature of the definition, it leaves itself open to a broad variety of interpretations. As a means of countering this, hypnotherapy, as discussed in this brief analysis, will refer to the use and implementation of therapeutic hypnotic techniques by a licensed and trained physician. Within the more rigid construct that has been lain out above, one can understand that little room for interpretation of the means by which hypnosis will be achieved as a function of therapy exists. Such a rigid definition is itself highly necessary due to the level of misunderstanding and societal misconception surrounding the term. Though it is not the purpose of this brief analysis to engage the reader as to the incorrect societal and cultural interpretations of hypnotherapy that exist, the reader/researcher should at the very least be mindful of their existence as should the recommending/prescribing healthcare professional. When one considers the applications for hypnotherapy there are vast. Many individuals undergo hypnotherapy as a means to rid themselves of a bad habit, to face difficult or painful memories, or as a means to self enrichment or betterment. Many of these forms of meditation do not have roots in medical treatment (Patterson et al 2010). As such, this is one of the reasons that hypnosis as a therapy has had an uphill battle to achieve a degree of credibility. Whereas when one goes to an orthopedist, there is only one type of orthopedist that is offered - a medically licensed and rigorously trained medical professional. Such is not the same case for a hypnotherapist. Due to the fact that many different levels of hypnotherapists exist, it has been a common misconception that the practice itself is somehow associated with a pseudoscience that provides limited results if any. However, the fact of the matter is that if administered by a licensed professional, hypnotherapy itself can be a powerful tool in seeking to provide a level of pain management that traditional medicinal means cannot and with few if any side effects. As scientific research has unquestionably proven the effectiveness of hypnotherapy with relation to pain management and treatment, one then needs to consider the question of what if any benefits that this form of pain management and/or treatment may provide over another perhaps more traditional means such as pharmacological administration of painkillers etc. With regards to this question, one should consider the fact that the pharmacological administration of pain killers, although very effective in seeking to mask the effects of pain on the individual have a litany of harmful side effects. Although it is not the intent of this brief analysis to categorize and list on magnitude of danger the side effects of traditional pain management methods, it is at the very least beneficial to briefly mention and discuss them as a function of having a more well informed opinion regarding the overall benefits that hypnotherapy has over more traditional and otherwise harmful methods of pain management. Firstly, with regards to the traditional pharmacological treatment of pain, one must consider that this invariably focuses upon masking the symptoms of the pain by dulling the brain’s ability to receive signals sent from the area and/or areas in which the pain originates. Such an approach is effective and has been used for millennia by individuals practicing medicine. Although the substances that hare used to dull this pain have advanced and become more synthesized forms of long lasting pain masking agents, the basic concept remains the same. Moreover, due to the fact that these substances merely mask the existence of the pain it is necessary for the individual to seek to continue their dosing of the substance until such a time as the pain itself goes away, the issue is healed, or the individual dies. Such a long term outlook necessarily calls into question the toll on the person’s health that the treatment itself will have. This is of course the crux of the matter as pain medication taken up to multiple times per day has a disastrous effect on the body’s internal chemistry and filtering mechanisms whereby permanent damage is often done to the kidneys. However, beyond the permanent damage that may be affected to the individual pursuing pharmacological means of pain management, there is also the very real and present danger that they may become dependent upon the substance and have a certain level of addiction that can develop (Tan et al 2010). This is of course a tricky matter due to the fact that the physician relies on the patient to be able to determine when and if they patient can discontinue the use of the pain medicine and resume another regimen of treatment. In such a way, if the healthcare professional is unsure as to whether the degree and or level of pain has abated, they may easily incorrectly prescribe continual doses of un-needed medicine based solely upon the fact that the narcotic substance has become a type of dependency and/or addiction to the patient. This additional downside helps bring the analysis towards the final downside that traditional pharmacological treatments for pain necessarily entail. When one deals with a situation of treating pain and utilizing pharmacological means in order to do so, there are necessary side effects to the drugs that manifest themselves in any number of ways; bound only by the type of pain, type of pain medicine, other medications that are being taken, pain tolerance level, and a litany of internal chemical, biological, and genetic processes. As a function of this, listing the different side effects that traditional means of pain management could have on an individual would require an encyclopedic length response. In sharp contrast to the list of interactions, possible dependencies, and longterm harmful effects of traditional pain management exhibits (in the form of pharmacological treatments), the hypnotherapeutic means of pain management do not exhibit the same level of drawbacks. In comparison, hypnosis itself has never been shown to be addictive. Rather, the sessions themselves are a means by which the individual can see to understand the working processes of their own mind and the realities of the feelings that exist with relation to their own pain. Additionally, when done professionally by a licensed medical professional, there have never been any demonstrable side effects from hypnotherapy (Elkins 2007). Unlike the pharmacological means of pain management that have been discussed at some length above, hypnotherapy does not have a harmful mental or physical set of after effects; even if it is employed multiple times in order to achieved the desired result. Yet, most importantly of all, hypnotherapy itself can be both analgesic as well as anesthetic. Whereas anesthetic refers to the ability to mask the existence of pain, analgesia itself refers to the absence of pain. As is quite clear, all forms of pharmacological pain management treatments are purely anesthetic in that they work to merely mask the root existence of the pain; however, certain types of hypnotherapy and certain individuals can work to “reprogram” the brain in order to not feel the actual existence of certain types of pain in the first place. The word reprogram has been used not due to the fact that it adequately describes the process of the internal workings of hypnotherapy but rather due to the fact that the ability of the hypnotherapist to alter the state of mind and existing consciousness after the session itself has been completed is most effectively referred to in such a manner. Although this in and of itself evokes a litany of negative stereotypes involving involuntary suggestion, it should be understood within the context of this analysis that no such meaning is ultimately intended. Though there have been several reasons listed within this brief analysis as to some of the main points that hypnotherapy holds a clear advantage over many more traditional means of pain management, this particular point, the ability of hypnotherapy to be both analgesic as well as anesthetic, is the most important factor of all. Due to the fact that no other method can boast such results, the clear advantage of hypnotherapy within this context is undisputed (Valente 2006). Due to the fact that pain itself is merely interpretation of a signal sent from within the body, via the central nervous system, to the brain where it is interpreted, there is nothing about the pain itself that can generally not be treated using hypnotherapeutic means. As a function of understanding such constructs, the individual need only be aware of the fact that they will be seeking re-interpret feelings and approaches that they have formerly sustained with regards to pain. Oftentimes, the success of these “re-interpretations” can be so successful that pain is no longer realized. This of course has been demonstrated by the results that Dr. Jack Gibson, an Irish surgeon, demonstrated during his professional career. During this time, Dr. Gibson is credited with performing over 4,000 surgeries with the complete lack of traditional anesthesia. The way that he performed these surgeries was by merely hypnotizing the patients prior to the operation and allowing them to control and categorize the pain within the constructs of the hypnosis itself. Of course, the added benefit to this form of hypnosis was the fact that the surgeon was certain that his patients recovery would not be hampered by or complicated through the application of any traditional forms of anesthetics or pain medicine that are so oftentimes problematic (Madden et al 2012). Naturally, this cannot be advocated for everyone; however, it is a clear exemplification of the power that hypnosis can bring to the field of medicine and a clear sign of the ways in which the brain can be taught and re-taught with how to interpret these signals that we call pain. As the preceding analysis has indicated, the means by which hypnotherapy can be utilized the treat pain are varied, multifaceted and exemplify a great many benefits over the more traditional pharmacological methods. This being said, it is ultimately up to the patient and the healthcare professional as to whether they would like to pursue an alternate means of treating their pain; however, as has been noted, it should be incumbent upon the medical healthcare professional to, at the very least, acquaint the individual with the benefits that hypnotherapy may offer them. Although no pain management technique is 100% effective for each and every candidate, the benefits that hypnotherapy offers cannot be sidelined and at the very least should be considered as a valuable contribution to existing methods of pain management. References Elkins, G., Jensen, M., & Patterson, D. (2007). Hypnotherapy for the management of chronic pain. International Journal Of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 55(3), 275-287. Madden, K., Middleton, P., Cyna, A., Matthewson, M., & Jones, L. (2012). Hypnosis for pain management during labour and childbirth. Cochrane Database Of Systematic Reviews (Online), 11CD009356. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009356.pub2 Patterson, D., Jensen, M., Wiechman, S., & Sharar, S. (2010). Virtual reality hypnosis for pain associated with recovery from physical trauma. International Journal Of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 58(3), 288-300. doi:10.1080/00207141003760595 Tan, G., Fukui, T., Jensen, M., Thornby, J., Waldman, K., Schmaelzle, R., & ... Cardena, E. (2010). Hypnosis treatment for chronic low back pain. International Journal Of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 58(1), 53-68. doi:10.1080/00207140903310824 Valente, S. (2006). Hypnosis for pain management. Journal Of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 44(2), 22. Read More