Could hypnosis relieve irritable bowel syndrome?
IBS affects many and causes sore bellies that can sometimes be very painful. If there is no real effective medication, hypnosis seems to give good results.
For years, scientists have struggled to agree on the effectiveness of hypnotherapy. And because it is rather difficult to evaluate according to the criteria of modern science: the diversity of practices used by therapists, lack of legislative framework, few studies considered “solid”… Yet the techniques that modern imaging found, is that when we were in a state of hypnosis, there are indeed changes in activity in certain regions of our brain.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HYPNOSIS ON IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME DEMONSTRATED
INSERM researchers sought to assess the reliability of the available studies on hypnosis, and the list of pathologies in which it could be really interesting. By examining the results of 52 clinical studies available on the subject, they have come to the following conclusion: “The studies testing hypnosis to treat irritable bowel syndrome confirms its potential: regular hypnotherapy limits digestive symptoms.”
For the record, irritable bowel syndrome is characterised by sometimes very intense stomach pains without physiological reason, whether with bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or alternation of the two.
Source: Press INSERM, September 2015
Maureen Diament and Nur Syazana H.
