Can you hypnotise away your hot flushes?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-11-12 03:00

International

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International researchers say they have found that self-administered clinical hypnosis may be able to reduce the frequency and severity of postmenopausal hot flashes by over 50%. The team directed 250 postmenopausal women to either hypnotise themselves using a clinical method, using 'cooling imagery' and suggestions for relaxation, or to listen to white noise. They found that, by week six, the frequency and severity of hot flashes were reduced by 53.4% compared to the control group's 40.9%. They also found the hypnosis group had a significant drop in the number of daily hot flashes, and they were far more likely to think the hypnosis was benefiting them, compared to the other group.

News release

From: JAMA

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial, the clinical hypnosis group experienced significantly greater reductions of hot flash scores and daily interference from hot flashes compared with the active control condition at week 6. This study suggests that hypnosis delivered through self-administered audio files is a clinically significant and effective method to reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal women.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Baylor University, USA

Funder: This study was funded by grant 1R01AT009384 from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

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