Though many of us believe the whole process of hypnosis as myth and have kicked up controversy for decades, with many researchers thinking that there is really no such thing — the medical fraternity are taking hypnosis seriously!
That hypnosis has not just a therapeutic, but also medical anesthesia effects, has been revealed recently. Not just that! It can also cut the cost of administering anesthesia during the operation, as claimed by the new study.
As reported by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, hypnosis prior to even a major surgery - like breast cancer surgery - can not only reduce anesthesia-amount, but also the level of pain, nausea and fatigue as reported afterwards!
And hence, with this as the fact, hypnosis eventually can help reduce both time and cost of a surgical procedure. In the study, patients who were hypnotized before surgery required fewer anesthesias, compared to those who undergo normal surgical procedure.
Interestingly, after surgery, the hypnotized patients are found to report not just less pain, nausea, fatigue and discomfort, but also common emotional upsets.
Describing the history of hypnosis in medicine and explaining the evidence for why hypnosis could reduce pain, David Spiegel, M.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. said,
It has taken us a century and a half to rediscover the fact that the mind has something to do with pain and can be a powerful tool in controlling it ... It is now abundantly clear that we can retrain the brain to reduce pain: ‘float rather than fight.
It seems, in years to come, hypnosis will be an integral part in surgery procedures rebuffing all the age-old myths and controversies - importantly lowering medical expenditures of both the patients and the institutes.
