Hypnosis and relaxation interventions for chronic pain management in cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial

Purpose Nonpharmacological interventions such as hypnosis show promising evidence for the self-management of pain and pain-related sequelae among cancer survivors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a 4-week recorded hypnosis intervention in reducing pain intensity compared to a recorded relaxation intervention in cancer survivors with chronic pain. Methods Adult cancer survivors were randomly assigned to listen to hypnosis ( n = 55) or relaxation recordings ( n = 54) daily for 28 days. Primary (pain intensity) and secondary outcomes (pain interference, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbance) measures were completed pre- and post-treatment. Treatment effects were evaluated using a series of analyses of covariance. Results Both hypnosis and relaxation provided significant and moderate to large improvements in the primary outcome and the secondary outcomes of pain interference and anxiety ( d s = 0.44–0.88). The hypnosis group also experienced a moderate improvement in fatigue ( d = 0.47) and sleep disturbance ( d = 0.54). The effect size for pain reduction from pre- to post-treatment for the hypnosis group was d = 0.86 and for the relaxation group, d = 0.88. There were no significant between-group differences in primary and secondary outcomes from pre- to post-treatment. Conclusions The results support that recorded hypnosis and relaxation interventions are similarly effective in reducing pain and the pain-related sequelae of pain interference and anxiety among cancer survivors with chronic pain. The hypnosis intervention also reduced fatigue and sleep disturbance. Audio recordings can provide a convenient delivery method of nonpharmacological interventions to self-manage chronic pain. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03867760, registered March 8, 2019.