Author: Cara Masset | July 23, 2024 | 5 min read |
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Article Summary
- Ashlyn Annes Gary helped launch a program to explore hypnotherapy for people suffering from chronic eye pain.
- Gary worked with an ophthalmologist and a psychiatrist to organize a clinical study of people with neuropathic eye pain.
- Researchers have found that hypnotherapy reduces both pain and anxiety in patients.
As a first-year medical student, Ashlyn Annes Gary saw a documentary about a patient undergoing a tooth extraction procedure without anesthesia. The patient was incredibly calm and in no pain because the hypnotherapist kept him in a hypnotic state.
Gary was fascinated when she saw the film in a Mind-Body Medicine class at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She was interested in the mind-body connection she learned from her mixed martial arts training, so she decided to major in Advanced Mind-Body Medicine at the Miller School of Medicine. While training the mind and body to earn a black belt is certainly an impressive feat, the idea of overcoming the pain of surgery with the mind was mind-blowing.
“I started looking into hypnosis on PubMed,” she says, “and I started to notice a growing body of research suggesting that it could be very beneficial, especially as a complementary therapy. I was really interested in the pain management aspect.”
Initiation of the Hypnotherapy Research Program
Gary had been seeking ways to learn more about hypnotherapy for an academic project during his undergraduate years and soon found himself with a unique opportunity to help launch an interdisciplinary clinical research program studying hypnotherapy as a treatment for people suffering from chronic eye pain.
Leveraging his experience coordinating clinical research at Woebot Health and the Stanford Byers Biodesign Center prior to joining the Miller School, Gary helped build the new clinical program under the guidance of his mentors, Anat Galour, MD, MSc, professor of ophthalmology, and Mary Ishii, PsyD, volunteer assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Miami Burn Center and clinical psychologist/hypnotherapist.
The research team focused on patients with neurogenic ophthalmic pain (NOP), a rare condition caused by malfunction of the corneal nerves in the eye. According to Dr Galore, one of the few NOP experts worldwide, patients typically complain of burning, dry or painful eyes. Patients often try for years to alleviate the pain with eye drops and painkillers, often to no avail, while also suffering from mental health issues.
“Many people who experience eye pain due to nerve dysfunction also have an emotional component to their pain,” Dr. Galor says. “They experience depression and anxiety related to their eye pain. We wanted to see if hypnotherapy could help.”
Hypnotherapy to reframe pain
During his second and third years of medical school, Gary helped eight of Dr. Galore’s NOP patients participate in a series of 10 hypnotherapy sessions. Dr. Ishii guided each patient into a relaxed state, using words like “soothing” and “cooling” to help restructure the brain’s response to pain signals from the corneal nerves. The goal was to teach the patients to see pain as an entity they could control.
Gary reported the results of Dr. Ishii’s hypnotherapy sessions to Dr. Galore. She combed through the scientific literature to learn more about the use of hypnotherapy in NOP and other pain conditions. In addition, she spent time thinking about ways to improve the budding program.
“Ashlyn is incredible,” Dr. Galore said, “Her active role in building the program clinically with us goes far beyond what most medical students get to do, and we are grateful to have her involved in developing a program of patient care where none existed before.”
Patients reported reduced pain and anxiety
Gary is currently a fourth-year medical student applying to residencies in ophthalmology, and she looks forward to presenting her team’s preliminary results at a student symposium this fall.
In a pilot study, the research team found that patients who completed hypnotherapy sessions reported reduced levels of pain and anxiety, suggesting that the approach warrants further investigation and implementation.
“We believe there is a patient population that could benefit from this treatment,” Dr. Galor said. “Dr. Ishii and I look forward to continuing this research.”
Gary said the project “expanded my understanding of what mind-body medicine is. Ophthalmology and hypnosis are completely separate in terms of medical expertise and knowledge. To be able to create a dialogue between these two disciplines is really special and a very unique way of tackling the problem of neuropathic eye pain.”
tag: Dr. Anat Galour, Hypnotherapy, Ophthalmology, Pain Management, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
