While urine is supposed to flow one way from the kidney to the bladder, many children have a deformity that allows the urine to flow the other direction, which puts them at risk for kidney infections. Once a year or so, those children have to go to the doctor to have a liquid put into the bladder through a catheter, then urinate while an x-ray is taken. The procedure is painful and embarrassing; unsurprisingly, neither the kids nor their parents particularly enjoy it. Researchers at Stanford tried training children in self-hypnosis to make the experience less miserable.

What the researchers wanted to know: Do children have a better experience with voiding cystourethography if they use hypnotic relaxation?

What they did: Researchers called the parents of children who had upcoming appointments. About half of the children who agreed to take part were randomly assigned to get training in self-hypnosis. This isn't stage hypnosis, where people act like chickens; in self-hypnosis, people are taught to focus their attention on something other than their surroundings, to help them relax. After a one-hour training session, the children and parents were supposed to practice at home; the therapist also was in the room during the procedure to help the child relax. A research assistant interviewed children and parents about how painful and frightening the procedure was the last time, and then observed each child's distress during the procedure.

What they found: The children with hypnosis appeared less distressed during the procedure, and their procedures didn't take as long. Also, only one child in the hypnosis group had to be physically restrained, compared with five of the children who weren't trained in self-hypnosis. But two of the children with hypnosis had the procedure stopped (in one case, because the therapist saw that hypnosis wasn't working and reminded the child several times that she could stop if she wanted, and she insisted on stopping).

What the study means to you: Self-hypnosis may help children get through unpleasant medical procedures. The researchers make some other observations about the procedure—for example, that some parents made their children more upset by telling them the pain wasn't so bad, and that several hadn't told their children why they were going to the hospital. In addition, they note, involving the parents in self-hypnosis training seemed to help them relax, too.

Caveats: The study was small—only 44 children. Also, because the hypnosis training required an additional two-hour appointment, less wealthy parents might have been less likely to join the study. And everyone from children to nurses knew who was using self-hypnosis and who wasn't, which could have biased the rating of the children's distress.

Find out more: Stanford's medical hypnosis program

Read the article: Butler, L.D., et al. "Hypnosis Reduces Distress and Duration of an Invasive Medical Procedure for Children." Pediatrics. January 2005, Vol. 115, No. 1, pp. e77-e85.

Abstract online: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org