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Doctor PrescriptionI was delighted to read in the London Metro newspaper (Wednesday, 6th June) that “Many patients suffering from depression would prefer not to have to take traditional anti-depressant medication, preferring instead to consider alternative non-drug based forms of therapy.” So says Professor John Campbell of the University of Exeter’s Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. His comments were in response to research indicating that hypnotherapy is of benefit in the fight against depression. This certainly aligns with my own experience, and I find especially that interactive hypnotherapy is enormously useful against depression.

When do you ever hear a GP say this: “Ms Jones, here is the prescription for your depression: I’d like you to take one session of hypnotherapy once a day.”

Imagine how visionary that would be! Alas, however, drug prescriptions prevail so often! In fact, for several decades now, the trend has been toward a greater medicalisation of everyday life, and toward more and more product-based solutions. More pills, in short.

For some twenty years or more, Dr Alastair Dobbin, a GP in Edinburgh, (Scotland) has been using hypnosis to complement his medical practice. In 2003, his success was recognised by North-East Edinburgh Local Health Care Co-operative, who are now funding a regular Hypnotism Clinic. At the same time, Dr Dobbin initiated a two-year pilot study to assess the efficacy of the hypnotherapy. This was carried out without research funding, using only staff who were already in place in primary care and in Edinburgh University. The non-controlled trial of 120 patients showed a majority experienced partial or complete success with hypnotherapy.

Shortly after that study started, Dr Dobbin also initiated a partially randomised trial of self-hypnosis versus anti-depressants as a treatment for patients diagnosed as having clinical depression.

The participants were patients who had been assessed as sufficiently depressed by their Doctor’s to be issued with a new prescription for anti-depressants.

The complementary intervention comprised twelve weeks of guided relaxation and direct-suggestion hypnosis, delivered as recordings on a set of CDs, and supervised by a trial nurse. This was compared with a standard treatment of a prescription for twelve weeks of anti-depressants together with similar supervision.

The trial was found to be very acceptable to all those participating. There was a significantly greater reduction in the level of depression for those who received direct suggestion hypnosis delivered on CD, compared to those who received medication.

The conclusions drawn were that guided relaxation and direct suggestion hypnosis is an effective and popular choice of treatment for depression in primary care. It was preferred by a majority of patients in this Edinburgh local health care co-operative and those patients did significantly better than those receiving anti-depressant drugs. The complementary prescription for CDs taken daily is simple to administer and to supervise. Although the study was small, and only partly randomised, the results are very promising.

“Ms Jones I’d like you to listen to the CDs in sequence once a day, and we’ll see how you get on. The Nurse will telephone you in three days time, and we’ll ascertain how much better you are then.”

Just what the Doctor ordered!

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