Efficacy of Clinical Hypnosis in Functional Neurological Disorders: Experience in a consecutive series of 50 patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Functional neurological disorders (FND) are a relatively common cause of neurological disability. Hypnosis follows brain processes similar to FNDs and may have therapeutic utility in this entity. We provide our experience of treating 50 consecutive patients with FND with clinical hypnosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODSOpen study of 50 consecutive patients with FND. The hypnosis method developed by Loriedo was applied, which includes a prior neuropsychiatric evaluation, an exploration of the patient's resources and one to three sessions of hypnosis. The patients were evaluated using the global clinical impression scale: baseline, +1 month and +12 months.

RESULTS

In the assessment of +1 month of treatment, 60% of the patients presented an improvement in symptoms (p <0.001) (25% recovery ad integrum). This improvement persisted and was amplified at 12 months, 68% of patients improved (p <0.001) (40% recovery ad integrum). No adverse effects were observed.No significant correlation of response to treatment at 12 months was found for the variables age (p = 0.409) or time of evolution (p = 0.154). Despite a better response in females, the relationship was not significant (p = 0.198).

CONCLUSIONS

Our preliminary open study shows that clinical hypnosis can be a good therapeutic alternative in patients with TNF and should be part of the multidisciplinary treatment of this entity. New controlled studies are needed to confirm these findings.