Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing in Madison evaluated the feasibility and potential efficacy of a patient-controlled cognitive-behavioral intervention for pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance, during treatment for advanced cancer.  

This one group pre- and post-test design consisted of 30 adults with advanced (recurrent or metastatic) colorectal, lung, prostate, or gynecologic cancer receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Participants completed baseline measures (demographics and symptom inventory) and received education and training to use an MP3 player loaded with 12 cognitive-behavioral strategies (e.g., relaxation exercises, guided imagery, nature sound recordings, etc).

Dear Belleruth,

Do you remember when AIDS was first discovered?  Do you remember the stigma attached to the illness and how that stigma created much more pain and devastation than the physical illness itself (as if it weren't bad enough)?  Who can forget, actually?  The patients... the disregarded... fought like hell to be recognized and respected, treated and researched.  No one ever thought AIDS could be successfully treated or that people could live productive lives after diagnosis.... but how wrong that was!

Researchers from the Division of Child Psychiatry at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital evaluated the effectiveness of teaching guided imagery to acutely injured pediatric patients in the PICU, as compared to a one-on-one inquiry about pain-related experiences.
 
Forty-four hospitalized children and adolescents were assigned to one of two intervention groups, the imagery arm (N = 24) or the inquiry arm (N = 20).  Pain was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale and a 0-10 Likert pain rating scale, while the Pediatric Trauma Score was given to assess the severity of each child's injuries.

Researchers from Indiana University School of Nursing in Indianapolis looked at whether guided imagery and relaxation was a useful self-management strategy for osteoarthritis, and whether it could help control symptoms and decrease the use of medication. Specifically, they tested whether it could reduce pain, improve mobility and reduce medication use.
 
Thirty older adults were randomly assigned to participate in the 4-month trial by using either GIR or a sham intervention, planned relaxation.

Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that, compared with those who used the sham intervention, participants who used GIR had a significant reduction in pain from baseline to month 4 and significant improvement in mobility from baseline to month 2. 

Researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia conducted a systematic review of studies that compare the impact of various techniques on reducing pain and distress in children getting shots for immunization.

The investigators identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs that measured the impact of these interventions during the injection of vaccines in children 0 to 18 years of age. Both self-report and observer assessments were used as measures.

Researchers from the Center for Professional Excellence, Research and Evidence-Based Practice at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, tested Betty Mehling’s guided imagery audio intervention, Magic Island to see if it was effective in reducing post-operative pain, increasing relaxation, and stimulating imagery in children in the hospital setting.

This cross sectional study compared pain and relaxation scores before and after the use of the CD. Sixteen children (7 to 12 years of age) reported pain on a 0 to 10 scale and relaxation on a 1 to 5 scale, and answered questions about what they imagined.

Pain scores were significantly decreased, with no significant differences in relaxation scores. Findings support that school-age children are capable of using guided imagery, and relaxation may not be necessary to achieve pain reduction.

Citation:  Huth MM, Daraiseh NM, Henson MA, McLeod SM. Evaluation of the Magic Island: Relaxation for Kids, compact disc. Pediatric Nursing. 2009 Sep-Oct; 35 (5): pages 290-5.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill developed and tested a user-friendly, inexpensive, home-based, guided imagery audio protocol for children with functional abdominal pain and found it much more effective than treatment as usual.

Thirty-four children, 6 to 15 years of age, with a physician diagnosis of functional abdominal pain, were assigned randomly to receive 2 months of standard medical care with or without home-based, guided imagery treatment.

Children who received only standard medical care initially received guided imagery treatment after 2 months. Children were monitored for 6 months after completion of guided imagery treatment.

Subjects found the treatment materials self-explanatory, enjoyable, and easy to understand and use. The compliance rate was high at 98.5%.

Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle randomly assigned 37 adults with spinal-cord injury and chronic pain to receive 10 sessions of self-hypnosis (HYP) or EMG biofeedback relaxation (BIO) training for pain management. Participants in both treatment conditions reported substantial, but similar, decreases in pain intensity from before to after the treatment sessions.

Hot damn, I knew this was true.  My guess is, it’s even more true for women in childbirth.  But I digress.  Researchers from Women's & Children's Hospital in Adelaide, Australia investigated whether there was a difference in hypnotizability between pregnant and nonpregnant women.  (Hypnosis during pregnancy and childbirth has been shown to reduce the use of pain medication during labor and other medical interventions.)

Study participants had hypnotizability measured by the Creative Imagination Scale (CIS) in the third trimester of pregnancy and subsequently between 14 and 28 months postpartum and again, further beyond that.