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Review
. 2007 May;53(5):823-5.

Hypnosis for treatment of pain in children

Alex L Rogovik  1 , Ran D Goldman
Affiliations
Review

Hypnosis for treatment of pain in children

Alex L Rogovik et al. Can Fam Physician. 2007 May.

Abstract
in English, French

Question: Many children suffer from chronic and painful illnesses. Hypnosis was found to be effective for analgesia in adults. Is it effective for managing pain in children?

Answer: Children can be easier to hypnotize than adults. Studies have shown clinical hypnosis and self-hypnosis to be effective as adjunct treatments for children in pain. Examples include painful medical procedures, such as bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture in pediatric cancer patients, postoperative pain and anxiety in children undergoing surgery, and chronic headache.

QUESTION De nombreux enfants souffrent de maladies chroniques et douloureuses. L’hypnose s’est révélée efficace comme analgésie chez l’adulte. Est-ce efficace pour la prise en charge de la douleur chez les enfants?

RÉPONSE Les enfants sont habituellement plus faciles à hypnotiser que les adultes. Des études ont démontré que l’hypnose clinique et l’autohypnose sont efficaces comme traitement auxiliaire pour les enfants qui souffrent de douleurs. Au nombre des exemples de telles situations figurent des interventions médicales douloureuses comme l’aspiration de moelle osseuse et la ponction lombaire chez les patients pédiatriques atteints de cancer, les douleurs postopératoires et l’anxiété des enfants qui doivent subir une chirurgie, ainsi que la céphalée chronique.

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