I think you’ll agree with me that the following article from ScienceDaily about a recent development in “science” is full of crap.
Admittedly, I approached the article, Hypnotherapy Eases Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptoms, Expert Says, with my skepticism on high alert. The reason: the treatment, hypnotherapy. I have found that many studies employing it are poorly controlled. And it can make a huge difference. The difference was illustrated in my post Bringing Therapeutic Massage Down to Earth. In that study it was found that therapeutic massage — a treatment that likely belongs in the same category — was effective in easing the symptoms of anxiety. BUT, thanks to a control group, it was also found that the effect was no greater than a treatment consisting of an equal number and duration of sessions consisting of a deep breathing relaxation technique or one of having warm wraps placed on the subjects arms and legs (“thermotherapy”). The implication?
Karen J. Sherman, senior investigator, admitted, “This suggests that the benefits of massage may be due to a generalized relaxation response.”
It is only thanks to the control groups that we realize “therapeutic massage” had no special, unique power. I suspect the same is true for hypnotherapy. While it sounds like a highly specialized form of treatment, I doubt it is the case. And so I wondered what the new research would inform me.
Alas, from the very first sentence my suspicion that I would be encountering weak science was confirmed.
Sure, the lead-off string of words was promising -
Hypnotherapy seems to be very effective for easing the distressing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS),
But it went rapidly downhill from there -
and in a goodly proportion of cases, clears up symptoms altogether, reveal experts during a wide ranging discussion of the condition in a Frontline Gastroenterology podcast. [bolds mine]
Goodly proportion? Clears up symptoms altogether? And the source: a wide-ranging discussion on a podcast?!
And the expert cited in the article? “Professor Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology.” That journal by the way, was founded by . . . Roland Valori, and its first edition was published was waaaaay back in March of 2010. Which means it has a non-existent track record.
Guess whose research was the source of the finding? Yup, Valori’s.
His experience of using hypnotherapy in the first 100 IBS patients treated with it showed that it significantly improved symptoms in nine out of 10 of them. It stopped symptoms altogether in four out of 10, while the remainder said they felt more in control of their symptoms. “To be frank, I have never looked back,” he says.
What?! Is this science? Doesn’t smell like it to me. Seems more like promotional material. But I don’t have the source study, the published paper, if there was one, from a truly peer-reviewed journal (i.e., not the author’s own), to determine how the symptoms were measured and what types of controls were employed, if any.
If you ask me, Professor Valori should look back. And look to others to independently confirm his finding, preferable with controls that rule out more mundane reasons for improvement in patients.
Until then, I wouldn’t be so confident. In fact, I’m downright skeptical.
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