Mind over indigestion seems to work for many

Hypnosis has been so effective in treating irritable bowel syndrome that British researchers recently tested its usefulness for chronic indigestion.

More than 100 people at the Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, England, were assigned to receive 12 30-minute sessions of either hypnotherapy, supportive therapy and a placebo medication, or medication (rantidine twice a day) over 16 weeks.

In the short term, hypnotherapy had a slight edge over the other treatments: Symptoms improved 59% on average compared with a 49% improvement in both the supportive therapy and drug treatment group. But a year later, symptoms had not only improved 73% on average, compared with 34% with supportive therapy and 43% with medication, but none of those who had gone through the hypnosis program was taking medication to control symptoms, while 82% of patients in the supportive group had to begin other treatment.

Although physicians are not certain how hypnotherapy works on the gastrointestinal tract, evidence that it is effective is “cumulative and consistent,” says an editorial accompanying the study in the December issue of Gastroenterology.

-- Dianne Partie Lange