[Ericksonian hypnosis in women with fibromyalgia syndrome]

Abstract

Background: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FS) is a chronic, painful, generalized musculoskeletal disorder in which some efficacy for the conventional hypnosis modality has been claimed.

Objective: to assess the efficacy of the Ericksonian modality hypnosis in FS management.

Material and methods: Forty-three FS female patients (44 +/- 4.7 years old) were included. They were randomized to receive for six months: Ericksonian hypnosis (EH; 20 subjects) or a sham-hypnosis (SH; 23 subjects). Every month, patient and physician global disease assessment, tender point count and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) were measured.

Results: During the follow-up, we did not find inter-group differences for the rate of change related to the baseline values for the patient and physician global disease assessment and the FIQ scores. At the third month (4.0 +/- 4.6 vs. 0.6 +/- 3.1; p = 0.02), and at the fourth month (5.0 +/- 4.6 vs. 0.8 +/- 4.0; p = 0.03) of follow-up, the participants who received EH had a significant reduction of the tender point count after adjustment for patient's age.

Conclusions: Despite no effect was noted on the functional status and the patient and physician global assessment, EH produced a reduction in the number of tender points in FS. Thus, HE may be an adjuvant treatment for the management of FS patients.