Breathe in, zone out: How hypnosis could help your asthma

Asthma. We’ve all heard of it. Whether it be your friend who carries an inhaler in their backpack or the student in the back of the lecture hall who can’t stop coughing during flu season, almost everyone is familiar with this chronic respiratory condition.

Characterized by inflammation and narrowing of the airways accompanied by acute attacks, asthma is the world’s most common chronic respiratory disease. Professionals in scientific and medical fields have birthed a breadth of treatment options from albuterol inhalers to injectable biologics and everything in between. Non–medical remedies, such as caffeine, turmeric, and fish oils, have also been explored for their symptom reduction abilities. Perhaps one of asthma’s more controversial treatments is the use of hypnotherapy — better known as hypnosis.

Most modern–day exposures to hypnosis are through videos on TikTok or YouTube, where a public figure convinces individuals to perform ridiculous tasks for comedic purposes. In a medical setting, hypnosis is a sort of “multidimensional phenomenon” that allows individuals to explore an alternate state of consciousness where they may be able to change their behaviors, or in this case health problems.

“Perhaps one of asthma’s more controversial treatments is the use of hypnotherapy — better known as hypnosis.”

Hypnotherapy’s effects on asthma were first studied in the late 1950s and 1960s. The most notable of these early experiments was performed by a group of English medical professionals in 1962. Their study divided asthma patients into control and experimental groups — the control group received only their typical bronchodilator medication, while the experimental group received hypnosis treatment. This hypnosis consisted of symptom–reducing suggestions and deep relaxation. The hypnotic states were induced based on the technique of varying physicians, usually characterized by eye fixation that led to an eventual trance. Patients were even taught to self–hypnotize and told to do so for the following months of the study. 

After six months, the experimental group showed a lower frequency of wheezing and bronchodilator medication use. These medications, consisting of inhalers, tablets, and nasal spray, all work to widen the airways, which are narrowed by asthmatic complications. However, results varied based on patient asthma severity, as well as other potential confounding factors like hypnotic methods and physician experience with hypnosis.

Other studies examined hypnotizability of patients and the provider’s experience with hypnotism play a role in the level of success of these alternative treatments. In a later 1986 study, asthmatic patients were separated into groups based on their level of hypnotizability. Again, promising results were found, showing a decrease in common asthma symptoms after a few months, with significant improvements in patients who had high levels of hypnotizability. Levels of hypnotizability were measured using the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, where patients are scored based on their ability to complete multiple progressively difficult hypnotic tasks. Those with higher levels of hypnotizability scored higher on this scale. It is difficult to explain differences in hypnotizability, but researchers have noticed these individuals typically have vivid imaginations and belief in fantastical or non–conventional elements.

Because hypnosis is difficult to define in a medical context, varying hypnotic techniques have been used, leading to a large amount of skepticism. Are these seemingly promising results really accurate? The confounding factors and variance in symptoms, techniques, and hypnotizability make it impossible to definitively tell if hypnosis is effective. A 2021 study by researchers in Indonesia furthers that hypnotherapy can reduce asthma symptoms, but still acknowledges it cannot definitively be deemed an effective treatment. 

A commonality between results so far, though, is a relaxation of airway muscles, which tends to alleviate symptoms. This raises the possibility that perhaps stress reduction, rather than hypnosis itself, may have a critical role. Stress has been proven to exacerbate asthma symptoms, and perhaps hypnosis is effective simply because it relaxes patients and reduces stress. In this way, hypnosis may be less of a direct treatment but still a worthwhile tool for addressing the multilayered complexity surrounding asthma and stress.