The Effect of Hypnosis on Systolic Blood Pressure

Abstract

Hypnosis is frequently used in numerous fields of complementary medical treatments. Blood pressure is an important vital sign. The changes manifest itself with hypo/ hypertension. Hypertension is a common and important health problem in society. Our aim is to evaluate the effect of hypnosis on blood pressure in healthy volunteers and to make a preliminary study for treatment of hypertensive patients. Healthy twelve volunteers, six women and six men, aged between 18 - 65 years were included after getting ethical permits and consent. The room selected for hypnosis was quiet and room temperature was standart to minimize the effects on blood presure. We used rapid hypnosis technique. Measurements were made under hypnonic trans of 10-15 minutes. Volunteers were awakened by countdown method. The non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Tanks test was used as statistics to chary comparison test. P<0.05 was accepted as significant. The statistical results of all changes made by measurement of blood presure was found to be p>0.05. Although p> 0.05 was not significant in pre-hypnosis, we observed average 4 mmHg decrease of systolic blood pressure during hypnosis. As a result of our data, it can be a preliminary study to show that longer hypnosis can be effective in treatment of people with systolic hypertension. It will be appropriate to repeat this study with more people. KEY WORDS: