The effect of self-hypnosis in patients with pollinosis

The aim of this study in hypnosis was the exemplary verification of a regulatory intervention in patients with pollinosis. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis are established methods in medicine. 52 patients with pollinosis participated in this clinical study. It lasted over two pollen seasons. Self-hypnosis was learned quite easily. It resulted in a clear yet statistically weak beneficial effect on the subjective assessment of the pollinosis symptoms, on the consumption of drugs and on other objective findings. From a methodological point of view this study might suggest that the classical comparison of experimental groups in clinical research could hide some larger therapeutic effects in individual patients. Therefore, it would be desirable to consider also individual data analysis in all future studies dealing with psychological or psychosomatic mechanisms and in all studies which capture parameters interactive at different levels. The beneficial effect of hypnosis on the swelling of the nasal mucous membrane in a provocation test initiated a subsequent small project on the possible mode of action of hypnosis in this pollinosis study. However, the results were inconclusive.