Irritable bowel syndrome is a common gastrointestinal problem affecting up to 20% of the population. Primarily known for it’s pain and discomfort as well as changing frequency of bowel movement, it also can include constipation and diarrhea. Often it also leads to a decrease in the quality of life and potentially missing school or work. While no one knows what really causes IBS and there does not appear to be any known cure, there has been a lot of studies which seek to offer different treatments to help decrease the severity of the disorder.
As one of the common things that makes IBS worse is stress, some research has been performed to see if stress management techniques or relaxation interventions, such as hypnotherapy, can help. The results were promising.
Lindfors (2011) randomized 138 IBS patients who were not responding to standard IBS management to weekly one hour hypnotherapy sessions for 12 weeks. The first study (N = 90) patients were sent to private practice to receive hypnotherapy and the second study (N=48) received hypnotherapy in a small county hospital or to served as waiting list controls. In the first, the experimental group were improved at 3 months (p<.05) while the control group who did not receive hypnotherapy did not show signs of improvement, this improvement was maintained at the one year follow-up. While they state there was a trend towards being statistically significant (with a p<0.17) that appears to fall distinctly outside of the standard tests for statistical significance suggesting that location of the hypnotherapy may make a difference or perhaps it was due to the smaller sample size.
Lindfors performed a followup study in 2012 where he followed up with 208 patients who received gut-directed hypnotherapy after failing to respond to . 49% responded immediately after hypnotherapy with 75% of those continuing to improve 2-7 years after the session. Even those who did not respond to the hypnotherapy still believed it was a worthwhile treatment to pursue.
Other studies have also shown gut directed hypnotherapy can be helpful in reducing severity and discomfort. While there is no cure for IBS, it seems hypnotherapy is an acceptable treatment option to help reduce the discomfort and improve the quality of life. If you suffer from IBS, you may wish to see if a local hypnotherapist offers gut-directed hypnotherapy and ask your doctor if he or she would recommended adding this option to your treatment regiment.
References
Perjohan Lindfors, Peter Unge, Patrik Arvidsson, Henry Nyhlin, Einar Björnsson, Hasse Abrahamsson, Magnus Simrén. Effects of Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy on IBS in Different Clinical Settings—Results From Two Randomized, Controlled Trials. The American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2011; 107 (2): 276
Perjohan Lindfors, Peter Unge, Henry Nyhlin, Brjánn Ljótsson, Einar S. Björnsson, Hasse Abrahamsson, Magnus Simrén. Long-term effects of hypnotherapy in patients with refractory irritable bowel syndrome. Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2012; 47 (4): 414
Melvin S. Marsh is a certified hypnotherapist in Augusta, Georgia and Blairsville, Georgia with a specialist certification in pain management. He performs hypnotherapy appointments both in person and worldwide via Zoom. He can be reached at www.afterhourshypnotherapy.com .
