Investigating Pain Perception During Focused Hypnotic Analgesia: Local and Remote Effects.

Hypnosis is increasingly used in clinical contexts to improve pain management and is supported by experimental research, showing reduced pain perception to controlled nociceptive stimuli. This study investigated spatial selectivity of focused hypnotic analgesia (FHA), a technique used to reduce pain in one restricted body part. Series of brief contact heat stimuli were applied randomly to the right and left arm in 40 healthy participants, before, during and after suggestion of FHA targeting one arm. Pain intensity and unpleasantness were assessed after each stimulus using numerical ratings scales. Results showed a significant decrease in pain intensity and unpleasantness for the protected arm during FHA as compared to before and after, whereas no modulation was evidenced for the unprotected arm. Ratings were significantly different between the two arms only during FHA. These results were observed regardless of the level of hypnotizability. This confirms that FHA can selectively modulate pain perception, both its sensory-discriminative and emotional-cognitive components, and restrict its effects on a targeted area without affecting perception on other body parts.