Anesthesia

The advantages to the use of hypnosis as an adjunct to chemical anesthesia are many, but first we will define the difference betwee anesthesia, and analgesia.

Anesthesia refers to one's ability to lose sensation in one or more parts of the body.
Analgesia diminishes rather than eliminates sensation, in other words pain can be eliminated, but sensation such as feeling a pressure when touched in the area will be recognized.

The first notable advantage to using hypnosis as an adjunct to chemical anesthesia is that of requiring far less amounts of any chemical anesthesia than normally required. This in turn has the effect of reducing deaths in surgery due to chemical incompatibilities with patients. The Mayos have had an unbroken record of about seventeen thousand cases without any fatalities due to the anesthetic ever since employing the use of hypnosis.
Additionally, patients have far more energy and vitality left after surgery for recuperation, and hypnotic suggestions for quick recovery and rehabilitation have also been used to help with great success.

Joseph Barber’s Hypnosis and Suggestion in the Treatment of Pain: A Clinical Guide, 1996, pg. 248 – 249, states that hypnoanesthesia is very effective and quite necessary in the relief of pain for burn victims, in which the use of chemical anesthesia could possibly be quite dangerous. Barber also suggests that simply pre-operative suggestions via the use of hypnosis are quite effective for speedy recovery after surgery. Learn more about hypnosis for surgery. Learn more about hypnosis for pain relief.

Crasilneck in Clinical Hypnosis: Principles and Applications, 1975, pg. 81 – 88 provides advantages of hypnoanesthesia in situations where chemical agents are considered dangerous due to respiratory, cardiac, or other diseases. He also states that the repeated use of anesthetics have a debilitating effect upon the recovery of burn patients, and that in certain cases, such as chemopallidectomy, it is desirable to have the patient conscious in order to respond to questions.

In Olness, and Kohen’s Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy with Children, 3rd edition, 1996, pg. 272, it has been reported that in a controlled study by Gaal, Goldsmith and Needs, 1980, on the effects of hypnosis on anxiety and pain in children, those that received hypnotic preparation before surgery required only one fifth as much post-operative pain medication.

Within the pages of Andre Weitzenhoffer’s The Practice of Hypnotism, Second Edition, 2000, pgs. 497 – 515, he states that hypnoanesthesia for major surgery is only effective for about 10 percent of the population, but that the effectiveness using hypnosis as an adjunct to chemical anesthesia is great. Some of the primary benefits include hypnoanesthesia in obstetrics, which allows more control over the birth movements, and also eliminates all the ill effects of chemical anesthesia on the infant. Here again, Weitzenhoffer states that hypnosis is an excellent preoperative tool, allowing for relief of preoperative fear and anxieties, and works as an alternative to preoperative sedation. Benefits postoperatively are many including the control of constipation, hiccups, coughing, retching, and for eliminating all sorts of postoperative pains in turn leading toward speed of recovery. Weitzenhoffer states that the use of hypnoanesthesia for major surgery requires a preparatory period, a maintenance phase, and a postoperative phase for greatest success.

And now for a few words of caution for those who are soon to be, have been, or are soon to be under the effects of chemical anesthesia.

During unconsciousness due to surgical anesthesia or trauma, the last resource maintaining contact with the external environment by a human being seems to be that of hearing. It has long been discovered that it is a grave error to consider the anesthetized patient as being unable to hear or understand simply because such an individual may have no conscious memory for events during the period of unconsciousness.

Meaningful sounds, silence, and meaningful conversation are registered and may have a strong influence on the patients behavior during surgery and for many years after, possibly indefinitely, since these memories are recorded at a deep level of consciousness. This is known due to several cases which have been uncovered and the events recalled with hypnotic regression techniques.

"Fears originating during an earlier operation have been found to reappear as the subject's later re-experienced the surgical anesthesia using hypnotic techniques. These fears produce changes in heart rate and respiration." This indicates that the utmost of cautions should be taken to protect patients to prevent cardiac arrest and other associated problems in the operating room."
It is also clear that patients under surgical anesthesia are as aware of deceit, and attempts to avoid the truth as are patients with malignancy or a critical illness. Most importantly it must be noted that the patient's unconscious records and associates communications in a most literal way.


Below is a summarized listing of the characteristics of unconscious mentation as they apply to deeply anesthetized surgical patients.

1. Thought processes continue independently at both a conscious level and a more child-like, literal, subconscious level while we are awake. Objective type thinking is blocked off in states of serious illness, fear, and during unconsciousness. A remark such as, "Don't worry about this operation, Mrs. Jones, it will be all over in hour-and-a-half", may be understood as thoughtful and reassuring by the conscious mind, unconsciously however, the patient may understand that there will be a sudden death in 90 minutes after the beginning of surgery!

2. The unconscious mind puts together associations of thought that are senseless to the conscious mind. For example, treating someone badly might bring awful guilt if the other person dies, which would leave blame on oneself even though the incidents had nothing to do with each other.

3. Reassurance as it is usually given by physicians and relatives is often quite useless. Often, disturbing secondary questions are aroused such as, "I wonder why he said, This operation carries practically no risk? Could it be that he is really worrying about me?" People recognize lies, and this could trigger unconscious setbacks.

4. Indirect reassurance by implication, is almost always accepted at an unconscious level of mind, and this is the strongest weapon the anesthesiologist, hypnotist, or doctor has against potentially dangerous fears. Most anesthesiologists seem to sense this fact, and will talk calmly about the preparation for anesthesia, and also about what the patient is to do when he awakens. This becomes an assurance that the patient will survive.

5. Hypnosis may occur spontaneously in the presence of fear, sensory of postural disorientation, and in loss of consciousness, during which time the auditory capacity has been shown to remain operative.

6. The unconscious mind is able to perceive pain without necessarily passing the awareness along to the conscious mind. Hyperemia, edema, and muscle guarding may occur so long as the unconscious mind knows that trauma is being produced, regardless of whether or not there is conscious pain.

It is possible to help the mind reject the unconscious awareness of pain, and to maintain a lack of attention for stimuli coming from traumatized tissue with simple hypnotic suggestions to recalling a previous experience of numbness centered in the operative area.

In addition to suggesting the hallucination of numbness or lack of pain, it is possible to dissociate awareness. Dentists and anesthesiologists frequently use this method when working with children. In Dave Elman's Hypnotherapy he offers hypnotic suggestions that the patient hold on tight with both hands to a pencil, and to concentrate on holding the pencil tight. Another suggestion would be for the patient to imagine themselves swimming for a nice relaxing hour.

email: dr_frank@hypnoticadvancements.com

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Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)
Hypnotic Advancements
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© 2004, Dr. Frank Valente Ph.D.(c)

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