Copyright Interesting Engineering
A simple daily hypnosis audio session may help women find relief from one of menopause’s most disruptive symptoms, hot flashes, without medication. A new clinical trial led by Baylor University’s Gary R. Elkins, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience, found that self-guided hypnosis could cut hot flash frequency and intensity by more than 50%. The nonhormonal approach could offer millions of women an accessible, low-cost alternative to hormone replacement therapy. Clinical trial results The multicenter randomized clinical trial compared a six-week self-administered hypnosis program with a sham control using white noise. Researchers enrolled 250 postmenopausal women who experienced frequent hot flashes. Nearly one in four participants had a history of breast cancer, a group often excluded from hormone-based treatments. “It is estimated that over 25 million women in the United States have hot flashes, with up to 80% of women in the general population reporting hot flashes during the menopause transition, and 96% of women with breast cancer report hot flashes soon after beginning anti-cancer therapy,” Elkins said. After six weeks of daily hypnosis recordings, participants reported a 53.4% drop in both frequency and intensity of hot flashes. At the three-month follow-up, reductions reached 60.9%, compared with 40.9% in the control group. Women with a history of breast cancer saw even stronger results, with a 64% reduction after six weeks. “While hormone replacement therapy is highly effective in reducing hot flashes, it is not a safe choice for everyone, and therefore, women need additional safe and effective alternatives,” Elkins said. The study is the first to compare self-guided hypnosis with an active control using sham white noise. This allowed researchers to measure how much of the benefit came from the intervention itself rather than the placebo effect. “This was a major breakthrough and innovation, as almost all prior studies of mind-body interventions have only used wait-list, psycho-education or simple relaxation to compare the active hypnotherapy intervention,” Elkins said. He noted that participants learned to manage hot flashes independently. “All sessions were self-administered hypnosis, which demonstrated that women could learn how to use hypnosis for hot flashes on their own with support and guidance,” he said. Beyond hot flash relief Elkins emphasized that self-hypnosis is accessible, inexpensive, and easy to practice at home using audio recordings or apps. “It can be practiced at home without needing to travel for doctor visits, and it is relatively inexpensive compared to in-person sessions,” he said. He added that once learned, the same technique can be applied to managing anxiety, pain, and stress. At the 12-week follow-up, women in the hypnosis group showed continued improvement with a 60.9% reduction in hot flashes and better sleep, mood, and concentration. Nearly 90% of participants reported feeling better, compared to 64% in the control group. “We are very excited about the findings from this important study,” Elkins said. “Our ongoing research aims to further determine how self-hypnosis can significantly improve sleep for breast cancer survivors and women in the peri- to post-menopause transition.” According to Elkins, hypnotherapy remains the only behavioral intervention consistently proven to reduce hot flash frequency and severity to a clinically significant degree in both postmenopausal women and breast cancer survivors. The study is published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
