Hypnotherapy Reduces Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Researchers from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom reviewed the literature, looking at the effects of hypnotherapy on functional gastro-intestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, and non-cardiac chest pain – conditions which create severe symptoms and erode quality of life.

Because these conditions are notoriously hard to treat, often impervious to a wide variety of conventional medicines, there has been an unusual openness to exploring hypnosis as a treatment option.

This review concludes that hypnotherapy relieves symptoms and also appears to restore many of the supposed psychological and physiological “abnormalities” that, for better or worse, become associated with these conditions. The authors recommend that hypnosis be integrated into the ongoing medical care that patients suffering from these functional gastro-intestinal conditions are receiving.

Citation: Miller V, Whorwell PJ. Hypnotherapy for functional gastrointestinal disorders: a review. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 2009 July; 57 (3): pages 279-92.