Controlled trial of hypnosis in the symptomatic treatment of asthma

Abstract

Two groups of patients with asthma were treated at random either with hypnosis or with an antispasmodic which was new to the patient. Measurement of results was based entirely on an assessment made by the patients of the alteration in wheezing and in the use of bronchodilators, by a system of daily diary recordings. Treatment by hypnosis was shown to be more effective symptomatically than treatment by an antispasmodic. The control group showed on an average little change throughout the period of the trial. The trial was carried out in three centres; results in two centres where chest physicians gave hypnotic treatment were better than those in the third, where patients were referred to a psychiatric department. Male and female patients progressed equally well. Those under 30 years of age and those whose asthma had lasted 20 years or less fared the best. The severity of asthma and the type of trigger also provided differences in response to hypnosis; mild cases and those with emotional triggers did best, but good responses were observed in the other categories. Patients who were easily hypnotized, those who achieved deep trances, and, perhaps most important, those who could practise the daily use of autohypnosis did best. Despite the many questions yet to be answered, hypnosis is of value in the symptomatic treatment of asthma as assessed by the reduction in wheezing and in the use of drugs. We are indebted to Dr. R. S. Bruce Pearson for allowing patients under his care to be studied in this trial by two ot us (Lionel Fry and A. A. Mason). We would like to acknowledge, with thanks, the most valued help given by two members of the Statistical Research Unit of the Medical Research Council: Dr. Ian Sutherland, who helped greatly in planning the trial, and Miss B. J. Kinsley, who converted the data on the charts into comprehensible tables and who gave most valuable help and advice in preparing the paper. Our thanks are due to Mrs. M. Curry (Colindale Hospital) and to Mr. J. Maher-Loughnan for painstakingly crosschecking the data. © 1962, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.