Efficiency of Hypnotherapy on Reducing Pain and Death Anxiety, and Increasing Resilience and Improvement of Cancer Cells in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Background and purpose: Leukemia is a group of cancers caused by accumulation of malignant white blood cells in the blood or bone marrow. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of hypnotherapy on pain relief, death anxiety, resilience, and healing of cancer cells in patients with acute myeloid leukemia treated with chemotherapy. A quasi-experimental study was carried out in which the research population were 86 patients of whom 26 (aged 30-50 years old) were selected via convenience sampling. They were randomly assigned into either experimental group or control group. Flow cytometry tests were done to confirm acute myeloid leukemia. The McGill Pain Management, Connor-Davidson Resilience scale, and the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale were administered to collect the data. Hypnosis therapy (six sessions) was done in experimental group. Data were analyzed applying analysis of covariance in SPSS V22. Hypnosis therapy was found to have significant effects on mental dimensions in experimental group compared to the control group (P= 0.039). Follow-up investigations showed more changes in death anxiety compared with other two dimensions in experimental group (6.67). Laboratory results indicated the onset of inflammatory reaction in experimental group. Hypnotherapy is a powerful method in caring for cancer treatment.