International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

HYPNOSIS AND PAIN 267
pain which are themselves dependent on intact neuronal pathways. In this situation
a patient may be asked to `Imagine your arm is being cooled by having water
sprayed on to the skin and then cooling air is being blown over itÐjust like a gentle
breeze does after you climb out of water after a summer swim.'
CASE HISTORY 1
A middle-aged man presented to the pain clinic with a 10-year history of
intractable burning and itching pain affecting the area of the face supplied by the
infra-orbital nerve, following an episode of Herpes Zoster some 10 years previously.
His pain was of such severity he was passively suicidal and he had been
unable to touch his left cheek for many years. After he was placed on antidepressants
his distress was reduced and three sessions of hypnosis using glove anaesthesia
enabled him for the ®rst time to control his pain. The imagery technique
involved taking him back to his European childhood and asking him to imagine
that he was holding a snowball against the affected area of his face.
This approach followed the use of the Wilson & Barber 1977) Creative
Imagination Scale to assess his hypnotic susceptibility. One of the items of this
scale involves asking the subject to imagine a local anaesthetic injection being
given into the side of their hand and that the affected ®ngers are becoming numb
and dull. In clinical use this item is translated into the phenomenon of Glove
Anaesthesia. Other items in this 10-item scale may be used to predict patients'
likely responsiveness to suggestions of time distortion, age regression, the utilization
of music for induction or trance work and relaxation imagery.
CASE HISTORY 2
A remarkable improvement in pain control occurred some years ago with the
presentation of a 50-year-old hotel cook who for years had been trying to convince
doctors that there was a physical cause for her severe lower back pain and left-sided
sciatica. No speci®c lesion had been demonstrated after intensive investigations,
including lumbar puncture and myelographyÐyet she continued to complain of
searing pain and paraesthesiae in one of her lower limbs on a constant basis.
Under hypnosis she was asked to:
Imagine that you are lying on warm sand on a beach and that a layer of sand is gently
being blown over your leg. This sand has special properties and, as your leg absorbs
the sand's warmth, the pain in your leg is draining into the sandÐdraining into it!
The sand is replacing your previous pain with a sense of warmth and comfort.
When you return to your alert state you will bring back all of that comfort with you
and this comfort will remain with you long after you are fully alert.
This patient was able to use the technique, even whilst standing in crowded buses
to get to work and home again. She was eventually able to cease taking the high