A study from Stanford University shows that brief electrical brain stimulation can temporarily improve hypnosis, a typically stable trait. The findings could expand the use of hypnotherapy, especially in the treatment of chronic pain.

Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have used transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily enhance the hypnotic abilities of chronic pain patients, making them more suitable for hypnotherapy. How deeply a person can be hypnotized (i.e., hypnotizability) appears to be a stable characteristic that changes little throughout adulthood, like personality and IQ. But now, for the first time, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have demonstrated a way to temporarily improve hypnotic abilities -- potentially allowing more people to receive the benefits of hypnotherapy.

In the new study, published January 4 in the journal Nature Mental Health, researchers found that targeting a precise area of ​​the brain for less than two minutes of electrical stimulation improved participants' hypnotic abilities for about an hour.

"We know that hypnosis is an effective way to treat many different symptoms and conditions, especially pain," said the study's lead author, Dr. Afik Faerman, a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry. "But we also know that not everyone benefits equally from hypnosis."

focus

About two-thirds of adults are at least somewhat hypnotizable, and 15% are considered highly hypnotic, meaning they score a 9 or 10 on a standard 10-point measure of hypnotic ability.

"Hypnosis is a state of heightened concentration, and higher hypnotizability increases your odds of doing better using hypnotic techniques," said David Spiegel, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and senior author of the study.

Spiegel, the Jack, Lulu and Sam Wilson Professor of Medicine, has been studying hypnotherapy for decades and using it to help patients manage pain, reduce stress, quit smoking and more. A few years ago, Spiegel led a team that used brain imaging technology to reveal the neurobiological basis of hypnotherapy. They found that people who were highly hypnotizable had stronger functional connections between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (involved in information processing and decision-making) and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (involved in detecting stimuli).

"It makes sense that people who naturally coordinate activity in these two areas would be able to focus better," Spiegel said. "This is because you're coordinating what you're focusing on with the system that's distracting you." "

Change stable traits

Armed with these insights, Spiegel teamed up with Nolan Williams, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who has pioneered non-invasive neurostimulation techniques to treat conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and suicidality. The researchers hope that neurostimulation can alter this stable quality of hypnotism.

In the new study, researchers recruited 80 people with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that can be treated with hypnotherapy. They excluded those who already had high hypnotic abilities.

Half of the participants received transcranial magnetic stimulation, which sends electrical pulses to the brain through paddles on the scalp. Specifically, they received two 46-second stimulation sessions that delivered 800 electrical pulses to precise locations in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The exact location depends on the unique structure and activity of each person's brain.

"One of the novel aspects of this trial is that we use the patient's own brain networks to target the correct location based on brain imaging," said Williams, the study's senior author.

The other half of the participants received a sham treatment that looked and felt the same, but without electrical stimulation.

Hypnotic ability was assessed by clinicians immediately before and after treatment, with neither patient nor clinician knowing who was in which group. The researchers found that participants who received the neurostimulation treatment showed a statistically significant improvement in their hypnotic abilities, scoring about one point higher. The sham group had no effect. When participants were assessed again an hour later, the effect had disappeared and there was no longer a statistically significant difference between the two groups.

"We were pleasantly surprised to find that with just 92 seconds of stimulation, we were able to change stable brain characteristics that people have been trying to change for 100 years," Williams said. "We finally cracked the code on how to do this."

The researchers plan to test whether different doses of neurostimulation can further improve hypnotic abilities.

"It is unusual to be able to change hypnotizability," Spiegel said. "For example, a study of Stanford University students that began in the 1950s found that when these students were tested 25 years later, hypnotizability remained relatively stable, as stable as IQ during this period." Recent research from Spiegel's lab also suggests that hypnotizability may have a genetic basis.

greater impact

Clinically, a brief improvement in hypnotic abilities may be enough to allow more chronic pain patients to choose hypnosis as an alternative to long-term opioid use. Spiegel will follow up with study participants to see how they fare in hypnotherapy.

The new results may have effects beyond hypnosis. Falman points out that neurostimulation may temporarily alter other stable traits or enhance people's responses to other forms of psychotherapy.

He said: "As a clinical psychologist, my personal vision is that in the future, when patients come to see a doctor, they will receive rapid, non-invasive brain stimulation treatment first, and then see a psychiatrist. The benefit they will get from the treatment may be higher."

Compiled source: ScitechDaily