Purpose: To investigate the effect of hypnosis and visual imagery on experimental pain among a convenience sample of adults from the community.

Methods: Tweleve subjects (ages 27-60) were recruited from the business community. The first trial, the control condition, involved the production of experimental pain with no intervention, followed by a second trial of experimental pain and visual imagery with standardized verbal suggestions for pain relief. During the third trial a hypnotic induction was provided with standardized verbal suggestions for pain relief. Hypnotic susceptibility was measured during the third trial, following the hypnotic induction, using the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C. Pain was produced via the submaximal tourniquet test for no longer than 20 minutes. Pain intensity and pain distress were measured by self-report using an 11-point scale. Tolerance for the pain experience was measured by cuff time.

Results: Pain intensity and pain distress were significantly reduced following both the visual imagery and hypnosis sessions. Tolerance for the pain experience was significantly longer for the hypnosis trial (8.29 minutes for the control, extended to 17.33 minutes with hypnosis) than for the visual imagery trial (5.72 minutes for the control, extended to 10.54 with visual imagery). Power ranged from .92 to .98 indicating the sample was large enough to identify significant differences. Effect sizes measured at eta2 ranged from .71 to .75.

Conclusions: Results of this study support that hypnosis can be an effective non-pharmalogical nursing pain management intervention.