Hypnotherapy for treating pain, anxiety disorders or depression

Hypnotherapy has a therapeutic purpose with a specific goal, such as relieving pain or reducing symptoms of anxiety disorders or depression. The treatment is carried out by a licensed healthcare professionals.

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SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

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Published: Report no: ut202401 Registration no: SBU 2023/675

Question

What systematic reviews have been published regarding the effect of hypnotherapy on pain, anxiety disorders or depression?

Method

A systematic literature search was performed using the following databases: Medline (Ovid), Scopus, and PsycInfo.
Two authors independently assessed the abstracts of all identified studies.
Risk of bias in relevant systematic reviews was assessed using an assessment tool based on AMSTAR [1].

Identified literature

In three relevant systematic reviews, the risk of bias was considered to be high, therefore the results and conclusions are not reported [2-4].

References

  1. Shea BJ, Hamel C, Wells GA, Bouter LM, Kristjansson E, Grimshaw J, et al. AMSTAR is a reliable and valid measurement tool to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol. 2009;62(10):1013-20. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.10.009.
  2. Batsford S, Ryan CG, Martin DJ. Non-pharmacological conservative therapy for phantom limb pain: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Physiother Theory Pract. 2017;33(3):173-83. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09593985.2017.1288283.
  3. Scheffler M, Koranyi S, Meissner W, Strauss B, Rosendahl J. Efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions for procedural pain relief in adults undergoing burn wound care: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Burns. 2018;44(7):1709-20. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2017.11.019.
  4. Zech N, Hansen E, Bernardy K, Hauser W. Efficacy, acceptability and safety of guided imagery/hypnosis in fibromyalgia - A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Eur J Pain. 2017;21(2):217-27. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.933.

Search strategies

Medline via OvidSP 6 Sep. 2023

Title: Hypnotherapy for treating pain, anxiety, and/or depression
  Search terms Items found
/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary;.sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp= Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract; .kf = Keywords; .kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf.; .pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation; .af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other.; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase

* Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy for identifying randomized trials in MEDLINE: sensitivity- and precision-maximizing version (2008 revision); Ovid format. The Cochrane Collaboration; 2008. Available from: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04-technical-supplement-searching-and-selecting-studies#section-3-6-1. with modifications: the following terms are added: clinical trial, phase iii.pt. ; randomised.ab. ; ("Phase 3" or "phase3" or "phase III" or P3 or "PIII").ti,ab,kw.
Population:
1. Exp Pain/ 461 882
2. Exp Anxiety/ or Exp Anxiety disorders/ 188 996
3. Exp Depression/ 151 812
4. Exp Mood Disorders/ 170 359
5. Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/ 41 521
6. pain.ab,bt,kf,ti. 779 328
7. anxiety.ab,bt,kf,ti. 266 651
8. “General* Anxiety Disorder”.ab,bt,kf,ti 11 166
9. (Depression or depressive* or depressed or dysthymi* or mood disorder or anxiety*).ab,bt,kf,ti. 676 357
10. PTSD or ((posttraum* or post traum*) adj3 (disorder* or stress* or symptom* or syndrom*)).ab,bt,kf,ti. 52 797
11. OR/1-10 1 715 531
Intervention:
12. Hypnosis/ 9505
13. Hypnos*.ab,bt,kf,ti. 8989
14. Hypnot*.ab,bt,kf,ti. 19 277
15. Hypnotherap*.ab,bt,kf,ti. 1401
16. Mesmer*.ab,bt,kf,ti. 351
17. trance.ab,bt,kf,ti. 742
18. hypnoanalys*.ab,bt,kf,ti. 57
19. OR/12-18 27 805
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis*
20. ((Systematic Review/ or Meta-Analysis/ or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or ((systematic adj4 review) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/)) 446 014
Combined sets:
21. 11 AND 19 AND 20 298
Final result
22.   298

 

Scopus via scopus.com 6 Sep. 2023

Title: Hypnotherapy for treating pain, anxiety, and/or depression
TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other.; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words.; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range.; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
  Search terms Items found
Population:
1. TITLE-ABS-KEY (Pain OR Anxiety* OR Anxiety Disorder* OR General Anxiety Disorder* OR GAD OR Mood Disorder* OR Depression OR Depressive* OR Depressed OR Dysthymi*) 260 917
2. TITLE-ABS-KEY (ptsd OR (((posttraum*) W/3 (disorder*; OR stress* OR symptom* OR syndrom*)))) 88 403
3. OR/1-2 322 099
Intervention:
4. TITLE-ABS-KEY (Hypnos* OR Hypnot* OR Mesmer* OR Hypnotherap* OR Trance OR Hypnoanalys*) 73 863
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
5. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( systematic W/2 review ) OR "meta analy*" OR metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”)) 653 880
Combined sets:
6. 3 AND 4 AND 5 326
Final result
7.;   326

PSYCINFO via EBSCO 6 Sep. 2023

Title: Hypnotherapy for treating pain, anxiety, and/or depression
TI = Title; AB = Abstract; SU = Keyword, exact or part (including all other fields for indexed and author keywords); DE = Exact keyword; TX = All text; MR = Methodology; Nn = Near. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other.; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
  Search terms Items found
Population:
1. DE ("Pain" OR "Acute Pain" OR "Aphagia" OR "Back Pain" OR "Chronic Pain" OR "Headache" OR "Myofascial Pain" OR "Neuralgia" OR "Neuropathic Pain" OR "Somatoform Pain Disorder") 69 547
2. DE ("Anxiety" OR "Anxiety Disorders" OR “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” OR “Panic Attack” OR Panic Disorder” OR “Phobias”) 126 436
3. DE ("Depression (Emotion)") OR ("Major Depression") 177 244
4. DE ("Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" OR "Complex PTSD") 40 545
5. TI (pain OR anxiety* OR anxiety disorder* OR General Anxiety Disorder* OR GAD Mood Disorder* OR depress* OR dysthymi* OR “posttraumatic stress disorder” or ptsd or ”post traumatic stress disorder” or ”post-traumatic stress disorder”) 249 087
6. AB (pain OR anxiety* OR anxiety disorder* OR General Anxiety Disorder* OR GAD Mood Disorder* OR depress* OR dysthymi* OR “posttraumatic stress disorder” or ptsd or ”post traumatic stress disorder” or ”post-traumatic stress disorder”) 582 464
7. SU (pain OR anxiety* OR anxiety disorder* OR General Anxiety Disorder* OR GAD Mood Disorder* OR depress* OR dysthymi* OR “posttraumatic stress disorder” or ptsd or ”post traumatic stress disorder” or ”post-traumatic stress disorder”) 451 554
8. OR/1-7 656 980
Intervention:
9. DE ("Hypnosis") 9 902
10. TI (hypnos* OR hypnotherapy OR hypnotism or hypnotherapies OR hypoanalys* mesmerism OR trance) 7076
11. AB (hypnos* OR hypnotherapy OR hypnotism or hypnotherapies OR hypoanalys* mesmerism OR trance) 12 738
12. SU (hypnos* OR hypnotherapy OR hypnotism or hypnotherapies OR hypoanalys* mesmerism OR trance) 16 295
13. OR/9-12 19 309
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis
14. TI((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR AB((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR SU((systematic n3 review) OR "meta analys*" OR metaanalys*) OR (MR "Systematic Review" OR MR "meta analysis") 93 628
Combined sets:
15. 8 AND 13 AND 14 96
Final result
16.   96
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