HYPNOSIS, PAIN, ASSUAGING OF PAIN

The hypnotherapy has been extensively used for assuaging of pain for a long time, nevertheless it is quite unknown to the patients and the physicians. As a result of the hard work of hypnosis researchers we can aquire very important experiences about the effect and the neurophysiological background of the method as well. The aim is to integrate our experiences into the perspective of painstudies of recent days so as to be available to a wider strate of physicians. In the last 15 years the sudden development of the brain imaging technics has enabled the researchers to examine the structures taking part in the development of nociception. We survey the mechanism of the development of nociception and the roles of the parts of the pain neuron matrix. The psychiologists deserve invaluable credit for introducing how the pain neuron matrix activated by the primer activation of the medial part is. The new experiences about the mechanism of empathic pain and the pain induced by hypnosis help to show that nociception can be developed also without the physical stimulus of the body. It helps us to better understand the mechanism of chronic pain. We show the cognitive regulation as the basic mechanism of the painkiller effect of the psychotherapies, furthermore the modulation role of the attention, the previous expectation, the revaluation and the mood. Finally we introduce the results of the studies of painkilling in hypnosis, which give information about the neurogical background of the modified consciousness and the painkilling.