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.

Researchers from the University of Louisville in Kentucky looked at whether Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) can reduce stress arousal in patients suffering from fibromyalgia.

An earlier study by this principal investigator showed that MBSR reduced depressive symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia with gains maintained at two months follow-up (Sephton et al., Arthritis & Rheumatism, 57:77-85, 2007).

This second study explored the effects of MBSR on basal sympathetic (SNS) activation among women with fibromyalgia. Twenty-four participants were tested before and after MBSR for anxiety, depressive symptoms, and SNS activation.

Cochrane analysts examined five randomized, controlled trials of the efficacy of exercise therapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and found that after 12 weeks, those receiving exercise therapy were less fatigued than the control participants (SMD -0.77, 95% CIs -1.26 to -0.28).  Additionally, physical functioning was significantly improved with exercise therapy (SMD -0.64, CIs -0.96 to -0.33) but there were more dropouts with exercise therapy (RR 1.73, CIs 0.92 to 3.24). 

Investigators from the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle looked at patterns of alternative medicine use among twins where one twin of the pair had CFS and the other did not.  They also looked at the perceived helpfulness of these methods, and how often these therapies were discussed with physicians.

A review and meta-analysis of studies investigating the effects of biofeedback on tension headaches was undertaken by researchers at Philipps-University of Marburg in Marburg, Germany.

A literature search identified 74 outcome studies, of which 53 were selected according to predefined inclusion criteria. Meta-analytic integration resulted in a significant medium-to-large effect size (d = 0.73; 95% confidence interval = 0.61, 0.84) that proved stable over an average follow-up phase of 15 months.

Biofeedback was found to be more effective than headache monitoring, placebo, and relaxation therapy conditions.  The strongest improvements resulted for frequency of headache episodes.  Further significant effects were observed for muscle tension, self-efficacy, symptoms of anxiety, depression, and analgesic medication.

Most effective of all was biofeedback in combination with relaxation. Effects were particularly large in children and adolescents. The review concluded that biofeedback constitutes an effective, evidence-based treatment option for tension-type headache.