Hypnotherapy and contractures of the hand

Abstract

Contractures of the hand are rather uncommon conversion phenomena. As yet, very little is known about treatment. After a brief overview of the literature on the various treatment strategies, we describe the treatment of four patients. There are indications that a complaint-centered approach, which attempts to influence the symptom directly, produces positive results. Hypnotherapeutic techniques were used in the four patients described here. Treatment resulted in improvement in three of the four.