Migraine and Hypnotherapy

Abstract

Therapeutic measurea for migraine are largely ineffective. Prophylaxis by hypnosis (including autohypnosis) and pmhlorperasine is difficult to ass because of the intermittency of the disease and the subjective nature of the disabling symptoms. A method of studying this problem is described in this article. Random allocation of 47 patients ww made to one or other prophylactic measure. This was followed by monthly assessments and independent evaluation of 1 year of continuous care. Criteria of improvement were the number of attacks per month, number who had Grade 4 attach, and complete remission. Rermlts showed that the number of attach and the number who suffered blinding attacks were significantly lower for the group receiving hypnotherapy than for the group receiving prochlorperazine. For the group on hypnotherapy, these 2 meaaures were significantly lower when on hypnotherapy than when on previous treatment. Prochlorperazine seemed about as effective as previous treatment. 10 out of 23 patients on hypnotherapy achieved “complete remission” during the last 3 months of the trial as opposed to only 3 out of 24 on prochlorperazine. It is concluded that further trials of hypnotherapy are justified against some other treatment not solely associated with the ingestion of tablets.