Hypnosis Improves Fatigue Scores in Multiple Sclerosis Disease

Introduction: In addition to physical disability, many individuals diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) commonly showed psychological problems, including fatigue. Hypnosis can be applied beneficially in the treatment of both physical and psychological human s disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the beneficial effect of hypnotherapyon fatigue severityof Iranian MS patients.Method and material: 22 individuals diagnosed as having clinically definite MS(19 females, 3 males) were registered in the present study.Demographic informationand Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) questionnaires were completed for evaluation of different types of fatigue such as: general, physical, and mental fatigue as well asreduced motivation and activity, first before starting the hypnosisand then following the lasthypnotherapy sessions.8 sessions of hypnotherapy performed in 10 weeks. Entries beginning of each session of the meeting were to review approximately 40-minutes in length. Subsequent hypnotherapy sessions were 50 minutes long.Results: Results indicated that mean MFI score was significantly reduced by 7.81 points as a result of hypnosis (from a baseline of 55.7, P < 0.01). Analysis of MFI subscores showed while there was a reduction in mean scores on all subscales of the MFI in the hypnotic group, only the reduction in the general fatigue, mental fatigue and reduced motivation subscale reached statistical significance (P < 0.05). Furthermore, hypnotic approach is more effective for women relative to men.Conclusion: This article highlights the beneficial effects of hypnotherapy which can be effective in lowering fatigue scores in patients with MS following eight 50-minute sessions of hypnotherapy.

Keywords:

Multiple Sclerosis , fatigue , hypnosis