PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SELF-HYPNOSIS

Self-hypnosis is a process that allow us to create the conditions of the hypnotic state in ourselves. Research clearly states that this condition can be reached in many ways: the clinical hypnotist, for instance, can provide specific instructions to his patient so that he can later automatically enter in an hypnotic state or specific techniques that he can apply when needed without the presence of the hypnotist. Generally, like in the classical processes of hypnotic induction, such phenomenon derives by a shift of attention from the outside to the inside of oneself. A recent study demonstrated the effect of self-hypnosis on pregnant women.
Participants were being relaxed on a couch and they practiced a specific kind of self-hypnosis for about thirty minutes. After these sessions many measures were taken, such as respiratory and heart rate (direct measures of physical tension). Additionally, some psychological scales for the assessment of anxiety were administered. Results showed that the process of self-hypnosis increased the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system (a part of the autonomous nervous system that is responsible for rest, recovery and digestion), leading to an immediate post-hypnotic relaxation that was measurable through the reduction of heart, respiratory rate and anxiety scores. Furthermore, thanks to a research conducted through Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRI), brain areas involved in relaxation and self-hypnotic processes were identified.
A group of 19 experts in self-hypnosis and 19 control subjects underwent two sessions of fMRI: during the first one, in a self-hypnotic state, three sensory emotion were suggested (relaxation, heaviness of the arm and heat); the second one consisted in a task of motor imagination (bending the right arm).
By comparing the two groups, activations in left prefrontal and bilateral post central areas were observed in the self-hypnosis group, in both the sensory and motor imagination phases. Activation of the prefrontal cortex (responsible, among the rest, of attention control) and of the insula was observed in both groups and it was more intense in the expert of self-hypnosis. Curiously, a correlation between the entity of the activation of the insula and the number of years of self-hypnosis practice of the participants was demonstrated. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that self-hypnosis techniques work through the relaxation of the central nervous system and through the activation of specific brain areas responsible for the shifting of attention and emotional reception. It is so clear that the application of self-hypnosis can help people who practice it, by leading to a state of physiologic relaxation, (see the first cited study about pregnant women) that can facilitate the work of nurses and other health care professionals. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SELF-HYPNOSIS