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Hypnosis May Prevent Weakened Immune Status,
Improve Health
COLUMBUS,
Ohio - Researchers here have determined that hypnosis and
related relaxation techniques can actually prevent the
weakening of the immune response that often follows periods
of acute stress.
A new study suggests that hypnosis may even slightly enhance
the immune status in some people compared to similar
individuals who don't use these interventions. If true, the
findings could have important health implications for
patients facing surgeries.
The research, reported in the Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, is the latest to test whether people
can protect themselves from immune system changes that
normally accompany increased stress.
Lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser describes using hypnosis
in this research as something like "hitting a reset button"
for the participants in the study.
"We're really talking about being able to shut out a lot of
distracting thoughts. And it varies according to how anxious
a person is at the time," said Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor
of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University.
"Our goal was to really get people to focus on the task at
hand."
Along with colleagues Phillip Marucha, an associate
professor of periodontology, and Ronald Glaser, a professor
of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics,
Kiecolt-Glaser chose medical and dental students facing
examinations as the test bed for this work.
This group of researchers has done numerous studies in the
last decade using these students as subjects since the exams
they face are known to be highly stressful events.
At the end of this project, students who had not used
self-hypnosis as a relaxation technique prior to their
academic tests showed a 26 to 39 percent difference in the
levels of two immunological assays utilized to measure the
activity of certain white blood cells -- T-Lymphocytes -
important to the immune response.
This approach uses two compounds prepared from plants called
Con-A and PHA. Measuring the activity of these cells serves
as a measure of a healthy immune response.
Glaser said these two plant compounds are used by
researchers as "surrogates" to gauge how readily certain
white blood cells - T-lymphocytes - multiply in one of the
most important stages of an immune response.
Earlier studies had looked at whether immune status could be
improved by the use of hypnosis. This group wanted to
determine if the frequency of the technique - how often they
practiced it - and the hypnotic susceptibility of the
individuals tested played a role in their immune status at
test time.
Thirty-three medical and dental students at Ohio State were
selected for the study. All had completed two tests to
determine how susceptible they were to hypnosis.
Half of them were taught to use self-hypnosis as a
relaxation technique while the remaining students served as
a control group. Students in the hypnosis group were
required to attend a minimal number of sessions and advised
to practice self-hypnosis regularly.
Initial blood samples were taken from all students to
determine a baseline of immune status markers prior to the
start of the study. A second set was taken three days before
the exams.
Once the samples were analyzed, they showed that:
-- When tested for exposure to Con-A, T-Lymphocytes from
students in the control group showed a 24 percent decrease
in T-lymphocyte proliferation compared to a 2 percent
increase in the hypnosis group;
-- The cells that were exposed to PHA showed that in control
group students, T-lymphocyte proliferation dropped 33
percent compared to an 8 percent increase of T-lymphocyte
proliferation in the hypnosis group;
-- The more frequently the students in the hypnosis group
practiced their technique, the better their immune response
was, based on these tests.
"If you look at individuals who continue to practice
(hypnosis), they will continue to have enhanced immune
function," Marucha said. "Those who don't, won't."
The researchers said that for patients, the study shows
hypnosis - or other intervention techniques - is only useful
when patients practice it.
"If you have no compliance, then there is no real
intervention," Marucha said.
Kiecolt-Glaser said that intervention techniques can have a
real practical value to patients facing surgery, since
anxiety about a coming test is no different than anxiety
over impending surgery. If the immune response can be
maintained - if not enhanced - then recovery from the
surgery should be less problematic.
"Patients should do these techniques and do them
consistently," she said.
The Fetzer Institute supported this research.
---Ohio State
University
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