News -hodgkins

Life expectancy for some cancer patients may be improved with hypnotherapy

See also "Time to study benefits of complementary therapies"

Research at the University of Hull has suggested life expectancy of patients with Hodgkin's disease or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma can be improved by hypnotherapy and relaxation alongside standard chemotherapy.

Details of the work were was presented to the British Psychological Society's Centenary Conference in Glasgow in 2001 by Professor Leslie Walker, director of Hull University's Institute of Rehabilitation and Oncology Health.

University of Hull

A total of 63 patients with newly diagnosed cancers took part in the study. All the patients were receiving chemotherapy and standard anti-nausea drugs.

The research divided the patients into three groups, one receiving relaxation tapes, the second receiving the tapes plus hypnotherapy to reinforce their effect. The third, the control group, received neither.

Professor Walker followed up the patients 13 years after diagnosis. And he told the Glasgow conference: "We found that the patients who had received relaxation or relaxation and hypnotherapy lived significantly longer."

The following figures, which give the average patients in each group lived after treatment, illustrate the differences.

Group One	(relaxation tapes only)	- 8.7 years average
Group Two	(relaxation tape plus hypnotherapy)	- 10.7 years average
Group Three	(no additional intervention)	- 7.8 years average

Professor Walker however underlined the fact that the patients differed in age and the stage of disease when treatment started.

As a result he said, although the differences were significant, translating hypnotherapy plus relaxation into three extra years of life was not possible. It was also conceded that the reasons why relaxation and hypnotherapy may help increase survival were not clear.

But Professor Walker suggested: "Chemotherapy and radiotherapy tend to suppress immune system functioning - so small interventions may help patients be more resistant to these effects."

Posted May 2005