Self-hypnosis can relieve distress in children undergoing an uncomfortable medical procedure known as a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG), according to new research.

VCUG is performed to identify underlying problems in patients who are prone to bladder infections. It involves filling the bladder with dye through a catheter.

The study found that children who were taught to use self-hypnosis before undergoing a VCUG had less anxiety than during previous VCUGs, according to reports from parents.

“We hope that physicians will consider our findings, along with those of other researchers, in the future when they are planning protocols for administering difficult medical procedures,” lead investigator Dr. Lisa D. Butler from Stanford University School of Medicine told Reuters Health. Butler and her colleagues published the results in the medical journal Pediatrics.

The research team compared the effects of self-hypnosis and routine care on distress and procedure time in 44 children undergoing a follow-up VCUG. Twenty-one patients were assigned to self-hypnosis and 23 to routine care. Nineteen of the children in the routine care group participated in a recreation therapy program provided by the hospital.

Patients in the hypnosis group received an hour of training from a therapist in how to perform self-hypnosis using visual imagery. The children and their parents were then instructed to practice the method at home in advance of the procedure.

Parents of the patients in the self-hypnosis group rated their children’s distress during the VCUG as significantly less than during previous VCUGs, the authors report.

Physical restraint was required much less often in the hypnosis group (5 percent) than in the routine care group (22 percent), the researchers note, and medical staff reported that the procedure was significantly easier to administer in the hypnosis group. The procedure time was nearly 30 percent shorter in the hypnosis group than in the routine care group, the study results show.

The medical staff also rated the children in the hypnosis group as having lower levels of distress than those in the routine care group.

However, the children’s ratings of their own overall distress were not significantly different between the hypnosis group and the routine care group.

“Hypnosis can provide an effective noninvasive (and nonsedating) method for reducing distress and resistance associated with VCUG procedures (and perhaps other painful or anxiety-provoking medical procedures) for children, as well as decreasing staff time and strain in administering such procedures,” Dr. Butler said.

She added that making VCUG procedures less unpleasant for children and their parents “may also improve patient and family compliance with future evaluations and procedures,” but that the study did not specifically address that issue.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, January 2005