January 19, 2006 – Before surgery, hypnosis would relieve anxiety in children just as effectively, and even more, than the medication usually used, say French researchers.
These researchers from the University of Rennes1 recruited 50 children aged 2 to 11 years for their study. All of them had minor abdominal surgery.
Before being taken to the operating room, half of the subjects received an oral dose of midazolam, the most common drug used to relieve anxiety in children in such a situation. The other half received hypnosis treatment, administered by the anesthesiologist, in addition to receiving a placebo similar to midazolam.
This allowed scientists to establish that only 39% of children in the hypnosis group were anxious when the anesthesia started, compared to 68% for the other group.
Hypnosis induces a state of relaxation which would also have a positive impact on the behavior of the child after the operation, by making him calmer. Children who used hypnosis, for example, showed less aggression towards their parents and had fewer eating or sleep disorders. Thus, the day after surgery, only 30% of these children presented behavioral problems, compared to 62% of those who had been administered midazolam. A week later, those numbers were 26% and 59% respectively.
The authors attribute the effectiveness of hypnosis in this context to two factors. Unlike midazolam, first of all, hypnosis has no amnesic effect. This therefore allows the child to keep memories of the surgery, making it a less traumatic event.
The researchers also argue that hypnosis would allow the child to establish a relationship of trust with his anesthesiologist before surgery, since it is the latter who administers the hypnosis treatment. This relationship of trust then makes it less difficult to separate from the parents, a great source of stress for the children.
On this subject, the pediatrician Sunita Vohra2, from the University of Edmonton, sees this as the main weakness of this study. She thus argues that the positive effects that are attributed here to hypnosis could very well stem from the relationship that the child established with the anesthesiologist before the surgery, a relationship that was deprived of children who did not receive. than midazolam. Dr.e Vohra is the head of the Canadian Pediatric Complementary and Alternative Medicine Network.
The results of the study by French researchers are published in the journal Pediatric Anaesthesia and Dre Vohra, in the pages of Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
1. Calipel S, Lucas-Polomeni MM, Wodey E, Ecoffey C. Premedication in children: hypnosis versus midazolam, Paediatr Anaesth., 2005 Apr; 15 (4): 275-81.
2. Vorha S. Is hypnosis as effective as midazolam as preoperative medication in children? Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies, December 2005 10 (4). Its text can be viewed at the following address: http://journals.medicinescomplete.com [consulté le 18 janvier 2006].
