Hypnotic treatment synergizes the psychological treatment of fibromyalgia: a pilot study

Abstract

In this pilot study, we compare the efficacy for fibromyalgia of multimodal cognitive behavioral treatments, with and without hypnosis, with that of a purely pharmacological approach, with a multiple baseline N = 1 design. We randomly assigned six hospital patients to the three experimental conditions. The results suggest that psychological treatment produces greater symptom benefits than the conventional medical treatment only, especially when hypnosis is added. We conclude that hypnosis may be a useful tool to help people with fibromyalgia manage their symptomatology.