The purpose
of using hypnosis is to reduce the pain a patient has without using
medication (anesthesia) before, during, and after surgery. Hypnosis
was used long before anesthesia was invented; originating over 200
years ago. At that time, it was called either 'mesmerism' or 'animal
magnetism'. During that time, there was a great decrease in
mortality in patients who used hypnosis compared to those who had no
form of pain relief during their procedures. Over time, use of hypnosis
went down due to being replaced by traditional anesthesia (such as
chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide); it was mostly studied in
laboratories. However, it became widely used again during World War
II, a time when there was little to no anesthetics available to help
alleviate pain from wounded soldiers. Use of hypnosis began to
increase in the 1950s.
It is assumed
that hypnosis for surgery is safer than anesthesia, reduces the
number of toxic anesthetics in the body. There are also assumptions
and claims that it will reduce anxiety and reactions to pain from the
surgery. It can be believed that any patient can undergo the
hypnosis process (the last assumption is not necessarily true).
While
there are/should be professional hypnotists with the patient during
the entire process, it is more effective for the patient to be
familiarized with the whole hypnotism process in order for the
surgery to be successful. How
this process works,
according to various websites, starts out with a person needing to
get familiar with accessing a hypnotized state (lying in bed at
night) before undergoing surgery. They need to know what it feels
like to be hypnotized, maintain a clear conscience with doing
hypnosis, gain knowledge of the procedure beforehand, get hypnotized
a few times, and practice techniques of self-hypnosis to achieve a
hypnotized state (all before, during, and after the surgery). There
are some negative reactions to using hypnosis such as dizziness,
anxiety, nausea, and fabrication of false memories. Not everyone is
open to the idea of hypnosis and would prefer to use traditional
anesthetics.
According
to testimonials, it is quite successful and saved people from a lot
of pain. I found the following news link as an example about a successful surgery
with hypnosis.
Hypnosis, No Anesthetics, For Man's Surgery
Hypnosis, No Anesthetics, For Man's Surgery
Looking
at this from my point of view,
I originally had no idea that this was even an option. I remember
watching an episode of Scrubs that had a patient wanting to be
hypnotized for an appendectomy. I thought it was one of the
strangest things I have heard of. Then, I became pleasantly surprised
when I was reading up on this; I had no idea that hypnosis had been
used for a really long time. I also had no idea this was even considered
a part of alternative/complementary medicine. I am pleasantly
surprised that doctors and surgeons incorporate hypnosis in a
professional way (i.e., keeping anesthesia at bay in case things do
not work out). I do not know if I would use primarily use hypnosis for surgical procedures, but it would be nice to have an alternative in the unlikely case my body reacts negatively to anesthesia.
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