Re: Award-winning research affirms use of hypnosis in eliminating pain

[Guest guest]

This is fascinating research, a!

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

[ ] Award-winning research affirms use of hypnosis in

eliminating pain

> Contact: Sally

> slharris@...

> 540-231-6759

> Virginia Tech

>

> Award-winning research affirms use of hypnosis in eliminating pain

>

> Helen Crawford knows from previous research that some people can use

> hypnosis to eliminate or ameliorate pain. Her quest now is to

determine why

> those people can--and others can't.

>

> Crawford, professor of psychology in the College of Science at

Virginia

> Tech, researches the neurophysiology of hypnosis, pain control, and

> attention, and, more recently, the genetic determinants of

hypnotizability.

> Her work has such a presence in the international world of hypnosis

research

> and has made such lasting contributions that she received the 2003

Ernest R.

> Hilgard Award for Scientific Excellence from the International Society

of

> Hypnosis. The award is named for a Stanford University professor who

was a

> pioneer in hypnosis research, past president of the American

Psychological

> Association, and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

>

> Crawford has current projects with research scientists from several

> countries. She is working with scientists in Israel on the genetic

> determinants of hypnotizability, with colleagues in Austria on emotion

and

> laterality, and with researchers in Romania and Spain on attentional

> correlates of hypnotizability.

>

> She and her colleagues in Israel, for example, have shown that there

are

> genetic underpinnings to hypnotic susceptibility. They demonstrated a

> relationship between hypnotic responsiveness and a genotype that

predicts

> performance on prefrontal executive (supervisory) cognition and

working

> memory tasks. This finding supports Crawford's model of hypnosis that

highly

> hypnotizable people " have a stronger attentional filtering system

associated

> with the far fronto-limbic attentional system " than do people who are

not as

> hypnotizable.

>

> Crawford previously proposed that, during hypnotic analgesia, the

anterior

> frontal cortex of the brain plays a major role in " an inhibitory

feedback

> circuit that cooperates in the regulation of thalamocortical

activities. "

> Her work has examined the neurophysiological correlates of hypnosis

and pain

> control using brain-wave activity and functional magnetic resonance

imaging

> techniques with Virginia Tech undergraduate and graduate students in

her

> Neurocognition Laboratory. Her neuroimaging studies demonstrate that,

during

> hypnotic analgesia, highly hypnotizable people have more physiological

> flexibility involving an active inhibitory process of supervisory,

executive

> control by the anterior frontal cortex interacting with and modulating

other

> parts of the brain. In other words, the executive functions of their

frontal

> lobe can better work with other parts of the brain in inhibiting the

> perception of pain from coming to consciousness.

>

> Crawford has worked with several physicians in the Blacksburg area to

test

> her work in more applied settings. With a group of individuals with

chronic

> low-back pain, she and her colleagues demonstrated, several years ago,

that

> most were moderately to highly hypnotizable and could reduce or

eliminate

> experimental pain such as that caused by holding a hand in ice-cold

water.

> " Most exciting, " she said, " was that these individuals, once they

learned

> hypnotic analgesia techniques in the lab, were able to transfer the

learned

> ability to help control their own back pain. Their psychological

wellbeing

> went up and their depression and levels of pain went down. "

>

> More recently, in an ongoing study with dentist Gregg, who also

teaches

> at Virginia Tech and at the College of Osteopathic Medicine in

Blacksburg,

> and Cristian Sirbu, a visiting colleague from Babes-Bolyai University

in

> Romania, Crawford demonstrated similar findings within a sample of

people

> with temperomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, a dysfunction of the jaw

joint

> that can cause such problems as headaches, facial pain, and neck

aches. They

> found that people with the disorder are often moderately to highly

> hypnotizable and able to control experimental pain with training.

" Thus

> hypnosis is an excellent behavioral adjunct to more traditional

approaches

> to pain control such as medications, " Crawford said. Crawford recently

was

> invited to address the German Pain Society's annual meeting in Aachen,

> Germany, and the Association for Applied Psychophysiological and

> Biofeedback's annual meeting in Florida.

>

> Her other work, done in conjunction with Neal Castagnoli and Kay

Castagnoli

> of the s Center for the Study of Parkinson's and Other Diseases

of the

> Central Nervous System, includes examining the effects of heavy

smoking on

> the brains of healthy young adults and the biopsychosocial differences

> between teenagers who are smokers or non-smokers. For further

information,

> go to www.psyc.vt.edu/faculty/faculty.asp?f=hjc.