Now a 21-year-old college student in Hawaii, Bland underwent years of tests that ruled out everything but irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic disease characterized by abdominal pain, often accompanied by changes in bowel habits. Medications, strict diets, and other treatments were ineffective.
Finally, in fourth grade, her doctor suggested hypnotherapy as another option.
I was skeptical about the brand, but I gave it a try. “After the first session, I was able to start eating food almost immediately,” she said. “It was quite surprising.” She said she attended three or four sessions where a trained therapist guided her into a state of deep relaxation and concentration to overcome the intestinal discomfort, and over the next few months. , I regularly listened to recordings provided by my therapist.
Four years later, she says: She is “able to live a daily life, eat most foods, and don’t care anymore.”
Mr. Brand’s experience is no fluke. Treatment for IBS is typically done with dietary changes and medication to alleviate symptoms, but decades of research have proven that hypnotherapy can alleviate symptoms in children and adults.
“Scientifically, it’s well known,” says Ali Navidi, a clinical psychologist in Burke, Virginia. His GI Psychology practice offers hypnotherapy for IBS. “The tragedy is that this is not well known among patients, and certainly not well known among clinicians and physicians.”
IBS is a debilitating disease. Patients may experience pain, bloating, and cramps with diarrhea, constipation, or both. IBS can also cause or worsen anxiety and depression.
Research suggests that the condition affects approximately 12 percent of the population in the United States and is more common in women than men. A study of American children found the prevalence to be between 2.8% and 5.1%.
Children with IBS are naturally sensitive to this problem and, like Brando, may avoid school and social situations. “They fall behind in their work, which causes anxiety about school, and anxiety about school worsens their IBS symptoms,” Navidi says.
The cause of IBS is unknown, but scientists believe it is the result of a communication malfunction between the brain and the gut.
After a meal, the nerves lining the stomach and small intestine sense the stirring, contractions, and gas production that occur during digestion, alerting Miranda van Tilburg, a researcher and professor at the University of the North, that something is happening. It is said to send a signal to the brain that it is there. Carolina Center for Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders. “…For people who don’t have irritable bowel syndrome, the brain will say, ‘Yeah, right. You just ate. Stop sending signals like this.’ Van Tilburg said.
But in people with IBS, the brain says: Please tell me more,” she continued. “This amplifies the signal,” resulting in pain and discomfort.
Jennifer Webster, an attending physician in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, uses the analogy of underwear when explaining hypnosis to parents and children. She says she knows there’s underwear under her pants, but she doesn’t usually feel it unless she has to.
Your intestines should function as well. “It’s active all day long, moving gases, fluids, and food, but you only feel it when you need it,” Webster explained. For example, when you’re hungry or need to go to the bathroom. “When there’s an abnormal interaction between the gut and the brain, it’s often sending signals to the brain that shouldn’t be there. These can be pain signals, or they can be other things like nausea or bloating. It may also be a signal.
In 1984, a doctor named Peter Warwell was the first to help IBS patients reduce these signals through what is called gut-directed hypnosis (GDH). A subsequent study replicated the results. In one of his large studies of 1,000 patients with difficult-to-treat irritable bowel syndrome, his 76 percent of participants benefited from hypnotherapy, reducing their symptoms by about half. . This treatment also reduced the anxiety and depression associated with IBS.
Studies on GDH in children showed similar improvements. A 2007 study conducted on children with IBS or functional abdominal pain (FAP) found that 59% of patients were considered cured, compared to 12% of children who received standard treatment. . Follow-up after an average of 4.8 years found that two-thirds of the children treated with hypnotherapy were still in remission.
The study “really teaches people skills, so you don’t have to give them drugs. And those skills stay long-term,” says Huang, who recommends trying hypnotherapy with children ages 6 and older. Tilburg said.
For people who are susceptible to hypnosis (up to 25 percent of the population are not), a GDH session puts them into a deeply relaxing yet focused trance state. Van Tilburg said people are more receptive to suggestions in a trance state, but cannot be forced to do something they don’t want to do.Hypnosis is different from stage hypnosis — A performance in which someone is put into a trance and ordered to quack like a duck.
Van Tilburg said that once the child is in a trance state, he will suggest ways to improve the child’s intestinal health. For example, she might suggest that you imagine drinking your favorite drink that coats your stomach to prevent the pain from transmitting. Or she may suggest that you give her hand special power and place it on your tummy so that the pain disappears. She said children can be trained to treat their own pain in three to six sessions. For adolescents and adults, it may take up to 12 hours.
Some experts believe that hypnosis for IBS should be the first-line treatment for children who are more resistant to hypnosis than adults. The problem is that currently many treatments are connected to hospitals or research institutes or have to be done in offices with trained therapists, putting them out of reach for many patients, both adults and children. That’s it.
However, efforts are being made to make hypnotherapy more accessible. The Rome Foundation, an organization focused on brain-gut issues, provides training for clinicians, as well as several hypnosis institutes. Research is being conducted into other treatment methods, such as group hypnotherapy for adults and recordings that children can listen to at home. Some companies are considering digital options. MetaMe Health is working to develop a smartphone app that connects patients with pre-market, FDA-cleared, trained therapists.
Navidi, who started out as a generalist, said his clinic has been flooded with patients since he started offering hypnotherapy for IBS. He founded GI Psychology in 2020 to fill the treatment gap. The clinic has eight practitioners and can offer telemedicine in 30 states. Treatment typically consists of 10 50-minute sessions that include clinical hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy to help children rethink anxious thoughts about their bellies, she said. Children also receive recordings to practice at home.
The cost is about $2,100, and parents typically recover about half of that from their insurance company.
Brand, a college student, isn’t sure why hypnotherapy worked. — Perhaps, she said, we need to reach a subconscious level where healing occurs. But she has a message for adults and children with IBS: “Don’t stop looking for the answer until it feels right,” she said. “It took me a long time to get to where I am today, but I’m really happy that I never gave up.”
