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Hypnosis helps women cope with breast biopsy: study

Last Updated: 2006-11-29 16:00:38 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Self-hypnotic relaxation facilitated by a trained healthcare provider can greatly ease pain and anxiety associated with breast biopsy procedures, according to the results of a controlled study reported today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

"Self-hypnotic relaxation offers women undergoing breast biopsy a drug-free choice for reducing pain and anxiety without adding procedure time, cost, or side effects," said Dr. Elvira V. Lang, an assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Dr. Lang and colleagues randomized 236 women undergoing large-core needle biopsy to one of three care groups: standard care (n = 76); structured empathetic care (n = 82), in which an empathetic person sat with the woman; or self-hypnotic relaxation (n = 78), in which the same empathetic person read a simple hypnosis script during the breast biopsy procedure.

The hypnosis script instructed the woman to roll their eyes upward, close their eyes, breathe deeply, focus on a sensation of floating and invoke a pleasant setting of their choice.

"With the hypnosis, we saw a very significant decrease in pain over time and a very significant decrease in anxiety during the procedure," Dr. Lang told Reuters Health.

The relaxation process in the hypnosis arm appeared to calm the whole team and help the members to focus, Dr. Lang added in a conference statement. The hypnosis group also had the shortest procedure times and the lowest costs, but these were not significantly different from the other two groups.

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