Hypnotizability and immunological response to psychological intervention in HIV

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Laidlaw, Tannis M.; Kerstein, Ryan; Bennett, Bryan M.; Naito, Akira; Dwivedi, Prabudha and Gruzelier, John. 2004. Hypnotizability and immunological response to psychological intervention in HIV. Contemporary Hypnosis, 21(3), pp. 126-135. ISSN 0960-5290 [Article]

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ch.297

Abstract or Description

Objective: This pilot study related hypnotizability to changes in HIV immune blood markers after two psychological interventions.

Design:The mean of two blood assays prior to intervention was compared to the results of the blood assay after the intervention.

Intervention: A course of four weekly 2-hour training sessions coupled with daily self-hypnosis practice was given to 13 participants with diagnosed HIV and for a further participants a similar course was given in a Japanese healing method called Johrei (a total of 22 participants). All were naïve to anti-retroviral medication.

Main outcome measures:CD4+ T cell counts, viral load of the HIV virus in blood.

Results:When highly hypnotizable subjects were compared to those of lower hypnotizability in a repeated measures analysis, their CD4+ t-lymphocyte counts were significantly higher (p = 0.007). This was achieved by the highly hynotizable subjects non-significantly raising their CD4+ counts while the CD4+ counts of the less hynotizable subjects declined significantly (mean change = −79.4 p = 0.006). The differences in CD4+ T cell % of lymphocytes and the viral loads did not differ

Conclusions:This pilot study indicates that hypnotizability may predict immunological response to psychological interventions in HIV.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1002/ch.297