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Giving breast cancer patients a brief hypnosis session before they have surgery can help them feel better afterwards and may actually reduce the cost of the procedure, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A team led by researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York found that women who had hypnosis reported fewer side effects like pain, nausea, and fatigue in the recovery room. What's more, surgical costs were $772.71 less for patients who underwent hypnosis compared to those who did not.

Such findings argue strongly for making hypnosis part of standard care for breast cancer patients, says lead study author Guy H. Montgomery, PhD, associate professor of Oncological Sciences at Mount Sinai.

"Breast cancer patients are going through a lot," he explains. "It's a distressing and difficult period to get through. They're worried about themselves, they're worried about their families. So if there's something we can do to make them feel better …we should translate this from a research protocol to actually doing something for breast cancer patients every day."

Montgomery's study involved 200 women scheduled for lumpectomy or excisional breast biopsy at Mount Sinai Medical Center. They were randomly assigned to receive either hypnosis or a control intervention, delivered within an hour before their procedure. Both interventions lasted 15 minutes and were conducted by PhD-level clinical psychologists with advanced training in use of hypnosis in medical settings.

The hypnosis session included relaxation techniques, visual imagery suggestions, and suggestions to experience less pain, nausea, and fatigue. It also included instructions for how to use self-hypnosis at a future time. Women in the control group did not get that kind of instruction, but instead had a supportive conversation with the therapist.

Patients in the hypnosis group used less of some anesthesia drugs and spent about 10 fewer minutes in surgery than those in the control group. That time savings in the operating room translated into an average cost savings of $772.71 per patient.

Montgomery suspects the time difference was due to hypnosis patients being more relaxed and comfortable going into surgery, though the study did not measure that directly.

There were no differences between groups in recovery time or use of pain medications after surgery. However, in interviews after surgery, hypnosis patients reported lower scores for pain intensity, pain unpleasantness, nausea, fatigue, discomfort, and emotional upset.

Hypnosis in hospitals is still the exception rather than the rule, but some large cancer centers do offer it. Self-hypnosis has been part of care for more than 17 years at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Licensed social worker Aida Molano, LCSW, who is certified in clinical hypnosis, runs group and individual sessions there that she says help patients recover faster, experience less discomfort and anxiety, and improve sleep.

"It returns them to control of their lives," she says of hypnosis.

Both Molano and Montgomery emphasize that the techniques used in the medical setting do not involve dangling watches or Las Vegas stage tricks.

"The first thing we do with a patient is debunk the scary weird stuff," Montgomery says. "We're not going to make you sing like Madonna, we're going to help you feel better. We'll help you concentrate, focus your attention."

Montgomery and his team estimate that the kind of cost savings seen in this study would easily cover the cost of employing a psychologist to perform hypnosis sessions. Nevertheless, he says future studies will explore whether nurses or other people on the medical staff can effectively conduct a hypnosis session -- or even if patients could be helped by an instructional CD.

He also wants to see if hypnosis would work for people with other types of cancer.

"I think it will work," he says.

Citation: "A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Brief Hypnosis Intervention to Control Side Effects in Breast Surgery Patients." Published in the Sept. 5, 2007, Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Vol. 99, No. 17: 1304-1312). First author: Guy H. Montgomery, PhD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.