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Introduction Clinical hypnosis has been proposed for post-surgical pain management for its potential vagal-mediated anti-inflammatory properties. Evidence is needed to understand its effectiveness for post-surgical recovery. Iin this secondary outcome study, it was hypothesized that surgical oncology patients randomized to receive perioperative clinical hypnosis (CH) would demonstrate greater heart-rate variability (HRV) during rest and relaxation at a 1-month post-surgery assessment compared to a treatment-as-usual group (TAU). Methods After REB approval, trial registration and informed consent, 92 participants were randomized to receive CH ( n = 45) or TAU ( n = 47). CH participants received a CH session before surgery and during post-surgical in-hospital stay HRV was assessed during rest (5 min) and relaxation (10 min) before and 1-month after surgery. Pain intensity was obtained using a 0–10 numeric rating scale pre and post 1-week and 1-month post surgery. Results One month after surgery, HRV was significantly higher in CH group ( n = 29) during rest and relaxation (both p 0.05, d = 0.73) than TAU group ( n = 28). By contrast, rest and relaxation HRV decreased from pre- to 1-month post-surgery for the TAU (both p 0.001, d 0.48) but not the CH group. Pain intensity increased from pre-surgery to 1-week post-surgery ( p 0.001, d = 0.50), and decreased from 1-week to 1-month post-surgery ( p = 0.005, d = 0.21) for all participants. Discussion The results suggest that hypnosis prevents the deleterious effects of surgery on HRV by preserving pre-operative vagal activity. These findings underscore the potential of clinical hypnosis in mitigating the adverse effects of surgery on autonomic function and may have significant implications for enhancing post-surgical recovery and pain management strategies. Clinical Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov , identifier (NCT03730350).
Azam et al. (Fri,) studied this question.