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

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Abstract

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 (ds = 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.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s and the University of Illinois Chicago Cancer Center’s support of this study, as well as Kari Jenssen, Clinical Research Coordinator.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number K23NR017208 and K24NR015340 from the National Institute of Nursing Research and K24AT011995 from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, WA, USA

    Linda H. Eaton

  2. College of Nursing, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

    Min Kyeong Jang

  3. University of Washington Rehabilitation Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    Mark P. Jensen

  4. University of Washington School of Nursing, Seattle, WA, USA

    Kenneth C. Pike & Margaret M. Heitkemper

  5. College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Ardith Z. Doorenbos

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Linda H. Eaton, Min Kyeong Jang, Mark P. Jensen, and Kenneth C. Pike. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Linda H. Eaton and Min Kyeong Jang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linda H. Eaton.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Washington (Date: 04–25-2019/No: 00004809).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All participants signed informed consent regarding publishing their de-identified data.

Competing interests

Authors L.H.E., M.J., K.C.P., M.M.H., and A.Z.D. declare they have no financial interests. Author M.P.J. receives royalties for books, and both speaker and workshop facilitator fees for lectures and workshops about pain and its treatment (including books and workshops on hypnosis for pain management).

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Eaton, L.H., Jang, M.K., Jensen, M.P. et al. Hypnosis and relaxation interventions for chronic pain management in cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial. Support Care Cancer 31, 50 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07498-1

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