Hypnosis may hold the key to fighting pain

Lifestyle –  Judy Murphy meets a pioneering hypnotherapist making important progress in alleviating migraine

Pain is something we all suffer from at one time or another and, for most of us, a few painkillers will sort the problem in jig time. But for people who suffer from debilitating conditions such as migraine, life is much tougher, especially for those with chronic migraine, which can entail 15 or more ‘headache days’ a month.

A new, natural, hypnotherapy treatment for treating migraine, developed by sports psychologist and hypnotherapist, Niamh Flynn, offers the prospect of reducing disability by almost 50 per cent in just 10 weeks, according to research she carried out under the auspices of NUI Galway for a PhD thesis.

Niamh’s audio-hypnotherapy based programme is unique in that it can be downloaded from the internet or bought in CD format, and used by migraine sufferers at a time that suits them.

It’s the first time a hypnosis programme for migraine sufferers has been specifically written and tested on an online platform, she says.

While her hypnosis programme is geared specifically at people with migraines, hypnotherapy can also be used to manage other types of chronic pain, explains Niamh, who operates out of the Galway Clinic.

As somebody affected by migraine and with a background in psychology and sports medicine, the Ahascragh woman had long felt there had to be a way of helping people to deal with the condition that didn’t just involve medication.

Between 5-10% of men and about 18% of women suffer from migraine, she says. Not everyone with the condition will have the characteristic blurred vision, increased sensitivity to sound and unusual somatic sensations before an attack; but those who do often describe the experience as disorienting and disabling.

A migraine can last anywhere from between four hours to 72 hours. Medications used to treat it or to prevent it include beta-blockers, triptans and anti-epileptic medications.

Having successfully treated her own condition with a mixture of osteopathy and hypnotherapy, Niamh decided to further explore hypnotherapy for her PhD thesis at NUI Galway, with the emphasis on CDs and MP3s – these empower people to manage their own condition at a time that suits them.

Needless to say, Niamh is thrilled with the outcome of her study, which showed that after just 10 weeks, participants noticed a positive change in the way they thought about about their condition as well as a drop of 48% in actual disability from the migraine.

As is normal with clinical trials, there were two groups involved. Half the particpants received MP3s with specially devised hypnosis sessions, while the other half – the control group – did not.

Those using the audio hypnosis noticed a 48 per cent decrease in disability while there was a 60 per cent drop in ‘pain catrastrophising’. That may sound like a technical term, but according to Niamh, it simply means a decline in negative thoughts connected with the pain.

“This means that an effective medication-free programme is now available for migraine sufferers everywhere,” she says. “They can listen to the CDs or MP3s in their own homes at at time that suits them.”

Hypnotherapy has already been proven successful for treating a wide variety of pain-related conditions, she explains, and she has just developed it in another direction.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.