title: Randomized trial of hypnosis as a pain and symptom management strategy in adults with sickle cell disease.
abstract: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common genetic disease in African-Americans, characterized by recurrent painful vaso-occlusive crises. Medical therapies for controlling or preventing crises are limited because of efficacy and/or toxicity. This is a randomized, controlled, single-crossover protocol of hypnosis for managing pain in SCD patients. Participants receive hypnosis from a trained hypnosis therapist followed by six weeks of self-hypnosis using digital media. Those in the control arm receive SCD education followed by a six-week waiting period before crossing over to the hypnosis arm of the study. Outcome measures include assessments of pain (frequency, intensity and quality), anxiety, coping strategies, sleep, depression, and health care utilization. To date, there are no published randomized, controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of hypnosis on SCD pain modulation in adults. Self-hypnosis for pain management may be helpful in modulating chronic pain, improving sleep quality, and decreasing use of narcotics in patients with SCD.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00393250.
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Gwenyth R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Wallen
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Kimberly R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ames
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Alyssa T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.affiliation: Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Handel
keywords: chronic pain; hypnosis; pain management; sickle cell disease; sleep; symptom management