Hypnosis

Professor Bruce Evans has been trained in hypnosis and is a member of the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis. He uses hypnosis to treat certain visual problems, including double vision, distorted vision, and contact lens phobias. The most common use of hypnosis in optometry is for double vision, which can be very debilitating, as illustrated in the adjacent figure. If you would like more information about this please contact Professor Evans (01277 211164). The following is an abstract from a paper on this subject that Professor Evans presented to a conference of the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis and the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis.

Efficacy of hypnosis in treating double vision and nystagmus

Professor Bruce Evans BSc (Hons) PhD FCOptom DipCLP DipOrth FAAO

Abstract

A rare use of hypnosis is to treat visual problems (Evans et al., 1996, Contemp. Hypn.) and twenty-seven such cases are reviewed. Seventeen had intractable diplopia (double vision), one had eyestrain from a surgically induced refractive error, and nine had congenital nystagmus. The use of hypnosis in congenital nystagmus is to relax patients in stressful situations, which are often associated with a worsening of nystagmus and reduction in visual acuity. The PHALIT test of hypnotisability was administered to all subjects and pre- and post-treatment questionnaire data were available for 11 of the diplopia cases.

The practitioner’s and the subjects’ perceptions of the success of the treatment by hypnosis did not correlate significantly with the PHALIT score, nor with subjects’ pre-treatment expectation of success or expectation of hypnotisability, nor with their post-treatment perception of how deeply they had been hypnotised (r_s<0.35). The best predictor of success was that subjects’ who initially reported the least worsening of their diplopia over the preceding six months tended to respond best to hypnosis (r_s>0.60). Depending on the criteria for success, between 50 and 72% of subjects with diplopia reported a moderate or marked improvement in their symptoms. Limited data for the nystagmus group suggest a similar success rate.