Hypnosis to Improve Attention?

Dr. Purushothaman
October 1, 2013

The question of if hypnosis may cure the signs or symptoms of ADD and ADHD is not entirely clear. I have been researching the use of hypnosis in the treatment of individuals with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and while it is clear that hypnosis helps the symptoms of a few conditions, what is much less obvious is if you will find any benefits to hypnosis for the cure of inattention and ADD.

Hypnosis has existed as a treatment measure for centuries. It was, apparently, first put to use in animal husbandry to comfort animals. It gained recognition in European Countries in the 1800s and was utilized extensively and quite effectively during the World Wars to take care of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS). Sounds, speech, magnetic materials, works of art, and other visuals are all methods that have been utilized to induce hypnotic states.

Hypnosis has, even with a pretty significant body of proof showing its usefulness for treating some specific conditions, been thought to be a rip-off by many doctors. Some healthcare professionals view hypnosis as some type of stage exhibit with no genuine value. Healthcare workers in Eastern countries have conducted large numbers of studies on hypnosis that have proved the capability of hypnosis in the treatment of psychiatric and chronic pain diseases. Research studies performed here, however, are divided pretty much fifty-fifty on the overall performance of hypnosis for these disorders.

There seems to be discrimination against recommending the effectiveness of hypnosis in Asia and discrimination against hypnosis in the U.S. Even excellent random/controlled trials on hypnosis completed in the U.S., where a value in hypnosis treatment is observed have been questioned and the results refuted.

Authorities in the field are prompt to explain that stage hypnosis (where hypnosis is made into a performance and the person on stage is made to do an act that they are not conscious of), is not like true hypnosis. These experts clarify that real hypnosis would not entail the performance of a behavior that is against our free will but that it does include a mental state that is only attained through hypnosis. Various hypnotists say that, for unspecified reasons, persons with ADD including Inattentive ADD, are more effortlessly hypnotized than folks without this problem and, as that young people are more hypnotizable than older people.

There exist several different approaches to hypnosis as well as a kind of hypnosis called Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP that employs talking to bring about a hypnotic psychological state. This sort of hypnosis has achieved widespread fame since it was first created in the early 1970s. A second kind of widely known hypnosis is self-hypnosis where digital content and/or affirmations are utilized to cause a hypnotic mental state.

An additional method of hypnosis, where the patient is alert and their eyes are open, is termed Instantaneous Neuronal Activation Procedure (INAP). This sort of active-alert hypnosis may perhaps be as useful as trance hypnosis in caring for some health problems.

Various trials, published in respectable journals, have shown improvement in signs or symptoms for conditions such as Tourette's syndrome, headaches, anxiety, pain disorders, and depression making use of numerous styles of hypnosis. Studies that have attempted to describe how hypnosis makes better the signs or symptoms of these diseases have determined that hypnosis, not unlike meditation, yoga, and exercise, may help the symptoms of these disorders by normalizing abnormalities in the ACTH-beta-endorphin functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

A lot of psychologists regularly use hypnosis with great success in their medical practices but I have not found any actual trials that documented the positive developments of hypnosis in curing the symptoms of Inattentive ADD or ADHD. So may hypnosis help inattention, Inattentive ADD or ADHD? More studies are necessary to answer that dilemma.

 

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